


Feed the Bees

by fish_wifey



Series: The bee boys [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Demons, Friends to Lovers, Ghost Hunters, Ghosts, Horoscopes, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Mutual Pining, Mystery, buzzfeed unsolved au, zodiacs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-10 00:15:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 30,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16459796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fish_wifey/pseuds/fish_wifey
Summary: Ryuunosuke and Kenma are content creators for their web series 'Feed the Bees'. Ryuunosuke believes in ghosts, Kenma doesn't. They also cover murder mysteries, and work alone from their shared apartment.One of them has a secret, however, that goes beyond the world of the living and the dead.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [glitch_writes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/glitch_writes/gifts).



> HEY GLITCHY. SURPRISE. Yes, it's been me all alone (Nana and I had a grand time with you wanting to know :DDD). I like staying anon during exchanges and it ups the fun for me when the other person doesnt know I'm busy creating fics, ESPECIALLY WHEN I KNOW THAT PERSON!!!  
> I hope you like this ;v; its my first time writing ryuuken and it has been a blaaaaast for me!! I added creatures from your list before the mod published them BECAUSE WE TOLD EACH OTHER!! so yeah im like, PUMPED to see your reaction.
> 
> So my creature is Zodiac. In the beginning it was lowkey. I added two creatures as a tag (ghost/demons) because that's what this fic is also largely about, and one creature (untagged because spoilers) with which i had soooo much fun. I played around with the idea of Zodiacs and the importance of it :D
> 
> And uhm yeah, this fic grew like... an insane amount ;w; I'm really happy it did because I initially thought my world-build and use of zodiac as a theme was very weak. ALSO!!! I chose to play with both western horoscopes and the Chinese zodiac circle, but I'm using the term 'Zodiac' for both~
> 
> Huge, huuuuugeeeee thanks to Nana. I only asked her to 'look' at it, plot and Kenma characterization-wise. But then she went full beta mode and supported this story from start to finish for weeks and kept it a secret for Glitchy >DDD Thanks for helping me not to worry or watch the details toooo much!!! The sweetest Nana made sure that I wouldn't be too doubtful and wouldn't add tooo many things~~ We had a lot of fun and I'm eternally grateful she offered to 'look' at this fic ;;
> 
> Last note for everyone to stay safe! This fic deals with ghosts, a killer, and other things. Some stuff are a little dark. I didn't go too explicit or in-depth with the murder stuff, and there's no explicit violence. But the ghost-y stuff can be a little creepy at times so... be careful when you read after dark. M-rating also because, as Nana said it '2 specific mentions of Ryuu's junk', there's drinking and well, overall themes teens shouldn't get involved with~

Despite not doing any work in the past 4 hours, it's Kenma who first dozes off, laying his forehead on a stack of papers. Ryuunosuke looks over to him, contemplating a multitude of actions ranging between pranks and caring for his friend, but eventually settles on an alternate route: leaving Kenma to sleep like that. If he's uncomfortable after, Ryuunosuke can make fun of him.

Today's work is unexciting. Ryuunosuke has been roaming the top 10 list of his go-to forums, but little buzz was to be found of the Uemura Takashi 'house of horrors'. The name 'house of horrors' had been so promising… but the main post about it—and the reason why Ryuunosuke had become interested in it—seems to be the only source. A single source wasn't credible enough to drag Kenma anywhere. Not that a stacks of papers or boxes full of rumours and sightings would get him there, either. But if there was enough 'fake' credibility, Kenma would at least fight less and probably come along in the end. 

And as it stands, there was just the one online news article. One post about a man who was plagued by ghosts and ended up destroying half his property before being sent to the mad house wouldn’t be enough to convince a non-believer. There weren’t even many comments below, and that minor source was too short for Kenma to even consider.

Ryuunosuke looks at the clock on the wall, watching the hands. One stationary on the 11, one steadily creeping closer towards the other. Late as it was, Ryuunosuke didn't want to give up yet. He sits back on the low floor seat, then gazes into the small hallway where their kitchen is located.

Pushing the floor chair backwards—and with it, himself from the desk—Ryuunosuke puts a good deal of space between himself and Kenma before stretching his arms up and partially behind him. He hears his joints crack—a sound that, had he been awake, would usually cause Kenma to throw things at him with perfect aim. But not even his phone buzzing with messages was enough to wake him up in this moment. Ryuunosuke isn't usually one to snoop or be overly curious, but he couldn't help checking the LINE message after seeing Kuroo's name flash across the screen - just to make sure no one close to Kenma was injured or dying. Taking the smallest peek, Ryuunosuke smiles. He’ll look forward to hearing Kenma mention this message to him later. 

Kuroo would often use a ruse to get Kenma to go some place—a new cafe, to check out a record shop, or visit a museum—only to end up dragging Kenma to volleyball-related events. And Kenma would whine about it to Ryuunosuke, especially since becoming wary of Kuroo’s words. Yet, he’d always go to meet his childhood friend, bringing Ryuunosuke along in case it actually is volleyball-related.

The thought of cafes makes Ryuunosuke thirsty for tea. 

Taking the kettle from the counter to the sink, Ryuunosuke adds fresh water to the possibly stale leftovers. Bringing the kettle to boil, Ryuunosuke then opens the cabinet above it, trying to find the sweetest smelling tea. There was one with an apple cinnamon flavour that reminded Kenma of apple pie.

 _That should do the trick and wake him up_. Removing two cups from the same cabinet, Ryuunosuke rummages through the drawer for other utensils. As the kettle boils, Ryuunosuke turns around, opening the door to the bathroom across from the kitchen, to take quick care of other necessities.

It's been like this for over a year. Kenma had no interest in actual ghost hunting, as he didn't believe in them. As such, he made Ryuunosuke do 99% of the research. Post-production was more his gig: editing, music choice, finding creepy effects. Once a new episode was ready, Kenma would upload it and maintain their channel. While Ryuunosuke typically posts text updates on their shared social media accounts, it’s Kenma who is left in charge of reading and filtering the comments after Ryuunosuke got into one too many arguments with negative commenters. Kenma would make sure to show him the comments from 'stupid believers', as he calls anyone believing in ghosts and demons, afterwards.

Washing his hands and making a mental note to check if there was anything he could reply to later, Ryuunosuke exits the bathroom and steps right into the kitchen. They don’t have the smallest apartment in Tokyo (which… Ryuunosuke would suffocate in), but the space is truly limited. At least their kitchen is wider than others, and has actual counter space.

Crossing his arms over his chest, Ryuunosuke stares towards the two yet empty cups, and finally, into the void of nothing. From this void, a brilliant idea hits Ryuunosuke. He knew the address of Uemura's house. Maybe he should just go and investigate by himself for once.

With renewed energy, he shuffles around with the objects on the limited counter space, and pulls out a travel mug instead. Putting the tea leaves in a sieve on top, he pours the hot water over them, wafting the steam—and hopefully the smell—away from his sleeping roommate. With lightning speed and without making a noise, Ryuunosuke picks up his backpack from a corner in the room, taking the camera along. As he lays a plaid blanket over Kenma’s sleeping form, he pauses, gazing affectionately down at his sleeping friend. He reaches to move some blond hair from Kenma’s forehead… but his survival instincts have him quickly turning away, instead. He takes the tumbler off the counter, wiggles his feet into his black boots, then leaves as silently as possible. 

 

*

 

*

 

He wakes as a door is being shut. Groggy, his head hurting, Kenma comes out of his nap disoriented. He remembers putting his head down for a second. With the goal of annoying Ryuunosuke into giving up on his current endeavor, Kenma's thought process was to block the papers he just printed and not help at all. 

Worming his phone out of his pants, he checks the time and sighs. The kitchen light shines and a cabinet door is half opened. Leaving his phone on the table, Kenma gets up and pulls the blanket closer around himself. He cannot remember taking it from the floor where he usually sits, but it's around him and keeps him cozy. 

The kettle's warm, and the cabinet door Kenma closes with annoyance is the one for tea. There's no water left, and he doesn't feel like bothering to make tea for himself now. Sighing, he checks for more clues; bag and shoes gone, tumbler too. Kenma doesn't mind not being made to go outside as autumn persists, but Ryuunosuke could have at least left a note or a message. Just as that thought appears, Kenma's phone lights up from where he left it at the table. He makes his way back, deciding to sleep with this throw around himself tonight. It smells like Ryuunosuke, for some weird reason.

Kenma's heart sinks a tiny bit when he sees the message is not from Ryuunosuke. He sits back down at the table, setting aside his phone to see how far his housemate and web series colleague has come with his 'investigation'. Not far, it seems, as he finds only the original article left open, but that is typical with a case like this. Kenma knows that these kinds of stories sound fun at first, but have little bite to their bark. Not that something as trivial as that would hold Ryuunosuke back when the words 'house of horrors' were used.

The kettle's warm, the house warmer. The outside, not so much. There's no reason for Kenma to venture outside.

Except that Ryuunosuke is out there, somewhere. 

It would be much easier to sit here and wait. To fall asleep and be woken up later when Ryuunosuke returns. Or to play games until the morning, to watch what comes first; the sun or the sun personified. Making his way back to his original position, Kenma could invest some time in himself, even if he's not napping.

Yet he picks up his phone, shrugs off the blanket, and wonders when bad decisions became a standard. 

As he pulls on his thick, hooded jacket and makes sure his keys are in the inside pocket, he realizes he knows the answer. 

Bad decisions were written all over this web series, living together with another human being, and in fact it must be Tanaka Ryuunosuke's middle name.

 

*

 

*

 

The video is shaky. Occasionally it goes out of focus, showing the viewer blurs of grey within grey within black. The night covers the horizon and beyond. A single streetlight blooms into existence, to be blocked out at rounded corners. The raw material isn't long, not even 10 minutes. Kenma watches it for signs, for anything out of the ordinary. Pausing the video for closer inspection, Kenma makes sure he doesn't miss a thing. He has a hundred excuses ready why this footage won't exist when Ryuunosuke wakes in the morning. Ryuunosuke, who snores gently away on his futon.

Who will believe him.

Flickering lights, Ryuunosuke’s off-screen breath quickening. The camera doesn't pick up the exhales as they're blown out into the quiet night. Ryuunosuke's commentary stops when he hears a sound, then of course goes to investigate. Kenma stares with intent, checking all corners of the video. Nothing enhances, nothing disturbs. Just Ryuunosuke kicking away a stone in the overgrown yard, before his knees brush bushes. On first reconnaissance check ups, they hardly pull out the more expensive, night-vision equipped cameras—just a cheaper, smaller one, from which the footage will be edited into the actual shoots later. Kenma is usually in charge of this, as he has a steadier hands and fingers, given his love for handheld consoles. Meanwhile, Ryuunosuke makes unnecessary and wild pan shots. There's three more minutes of this, as Ryuunosuke checks the garden for signs, for stray animals, for blood. His breathing is mostly normal, his commentary consisting of soft curses when he finds nothing.

In the final 2 minutes of the video, Ryuunosuke approaches the door. It's about this time that Kenma arrived at the scene, the night before. He doesn't hear himself, obviously. 

A flat palm comes into view, touching the door, before Ryuunosuke knocks. He jokes on camera, but there's caution and a slight sense of fear in his tone. The video focuses on Ryuunosuke's hand around the doorknob, testing to see if it's locked. The door opens with little resistance. Yet as soon as Ryuunosuke enters, darkness engulfs from inside the house. The camera falls. Footsteps as silent as kitten paws creak with the slightest hesitation over the threshold. The camera registers the sound of it being picked up, but its camera cannot see anything through the darkness of the house.

The video stops there.

Kenma sighs, then deletes it. There was nothing inside the house, nothing out of the ordinary. Ryuunosuke had no real reason to go there, and it was wasted time. Managing to haul Ryuunosuke back home was always a drag: a taxi, a driver paid for silence, the reassurance that Kenma is a friend, knows Ryuunosuke, and that they rent an apartment together. It's the same old thing every time.

 

*

 

*

 

Three nights and four days later, they're still sniffling. Kenma dislikes how his laptop keeps bouncing on his knees when Ryuunosuke sneezes. They're sitting side by side in a heap of blankets and cushions on the floor. Cocooned in sickness and the smell of tea and honey. Their low table is full of dishes which they need to take care of, but are too sick to bother with. Ryuunosuke is busy finding new lead to _another_ haunted place, whilst Kenma watches a let's play to distract him from his head crashing open. Ryuunosuke's sneezes are loud and nasty, not adding to Kenma's general well-being. It's not as if they had to stick together for whatever other reason.

Yet Ryuunosuke always plops down close to another body when he's working. Every now and then, an elbow finds its way into Kenma's arm, and he's made to look over a fact or a picture. There's the general hum of disbelief that follows any such distraction from his video. But Kenma pauses it every time. 

Ryuunosuke's latest find was just as uninteresting as the last. Yet the open notebook in front of him reveals a side project. One that has Kenma's nose scrunching up and a bad feeling welling up in his stomach.

"What's this?" He says in a low voice, picking up the slim notebook. Ryuunosuke keeps file cases in separate thin notebooks. He has tiny cahiers for quick notes and new ideas, then works them out to his laptop, before deciding what size the next case would be. Kenma is sure that these notes might need transferring into A4 format.

"You’re kidding... _The Chinese Zodiac Killer_? Really?"

"What? I mean sure, looks like a copycat from the American version... But there have been some killings north of the city which are strangely familiar to that stuff!" 

Not liking it one bit, Kenma flips through the few notes Ryuunosuke has so far. Connections he sees between murders, each more gruesome than the last.

"I thought you said we wouldn't do crime until next season..." Kenma says, putting the notebook aside to his right. Ryuunosuke is on his left, looking at him. Their first ‘season’, when neither knew if they would even get anyone to look at it, had been random; a mix of unsolved cold cases, visits to nearby hot spots, and Ryuunosuke’s favourite, the hunt for the paranormal. Starting from the second season, they wanted to be more specific with the themes.

"Yeah but, this just started. I can compile news and facts right now and store it for later," Ryuunosuke reasons, hands lying on his laptop. Kenma looks at Ryuunosuke's latest scar on the side of his right hand, running from the back of it to the palm. The scar would heal, like so many others. But it shouldn't be there in the first place. Ryuunosuke is the kind of rowdy type that makes huge gestures and takes big steps, but he usually watches where he's going.

They'd gone to the house of horrors together the night after Ryuunosuke had ventured there alone. Kenma didn't want to, but Ryuunosuke remembered leaving the house and having a video, before he tripped over his own feet. Kenma explained how he had found Ryuunosuke later and took him home. From that night, Ryuunosuke had a little bruise on his forehead, currently covered by a band-aid. The next night, however, Ryuunosuke had dragged Kenma along. The scar on his hand was Kenma-inflicted, in a way. Looking back over his shoulder to check up on Kenma, Ryuunosuke hadn't stopped walking, and managed to fling himself down an uneven step. A sharp rock poked up just where his hand had landed, and gave him a shallow but solid cut. Kenma didn't like the sight of blood, and had rushed over to help Ryuunosuke back on his feet. No light deed to be done by someone like him, but they had managed to get out of there and have Ryuunosuke's hand looked at.

"’House of horrors’... it's more a house of clumsiness. Just drop it," Kenma had said the next day, and managed to get Ryuunosuke away from the idea of going back a third time. His hand didn't require stitches, not even a band-aid. And yet Kenma hates the sight of it. Not mentioning it again, his head swivels back to his own screen, deciding to ignore Ryuunosuke for a while. 

 

*

 

*

 

More gruesome killings and notes from the killer himself were starting to pop up. Ryuunosuke busies himself making parallels between the Chinese Zodiac killer and the American original. Using a A4 notebook, he starts in the beginning, marking a timeline and information about each victim. There’s not much yet. Crediting working on his 'recovery', Ryuunosuke bounces around in the kitchen cooking a meal for both himself and Kenma. It warms Ryuunosuke’s heart to see him equally sniffly and reaching for tissues. 

Even during the most mundane tasks, the copycat killer didn't leave his mind. A couple of things were starting to add up, at least from the solid facts. As Ryuunosuke checks on the rice, his eyes flicker between his phone (the recipe) and the laptop (his digital case-file) on the counter. Two small notebooks lie in a silver wire basket, clipped with a pen in case he had new ideas regarding food or the murders. 

Ryuunosuke knew it wasn’t normal for him to research ongoing topics. The crime episodes they typically covered on 'Feed the Bees' were older—usually from over 10 years ago—and ideally happened before both of them were born. It was more fun to browse digital archives and compile news stories, but he finds that going out to investigate things as they happen, first-hand, feels fresh and exciting. Ryuunosuke easily loses himself, pouring his heart and soul into interests that others wouldn't care about.

He never expected to get anywhere uploading random videos on the internet, shot with low quality cameras like a found footage horror compilation, yet people's interest in the stories Ryuunosuke wants to tell and the things he likes to discover struck a chord. Now there was an audience, waiting for his and Kenma’s bi-weekly updates. Without caring for the number of views or subscribers they got, within a few months time, they were able to afford one piece of new, more professional equipment every month. 

Kenma’s skepticism wasn't a downer. The fact that he was engaging in conversation and trying to get Ryuunosuke off this case was fun. Without meaning to, Kenma was bringing insights and a new way to approach it.

"Hey wouldn't it be cool to catch him in the act? The police are giving money rewards for tips. What if we bring him in?" Ryuunosuke says, reading a recent post. There were quite a few bounty hunters out there, eager for some action. 

"Or, you could return all these books to the library," Kenma says from his seat on the floor. Legs slung over a small mountain of pillows, he's curled up sideways into the wall. Even with the limited space, they had arranged their tiny apartment to be cozy. They didn’t have room for a bookcase, so some of the books they owned were stored away in the built-in closet. It was a miracle they could fit a slim table and the low seats for it in here, then easily put them against the wall and have a place to sleep at night. Looking at the pile of library books, Kenma doesn’t appear annoyed at them, actually. Ryuunosuke leans his elbows on top of the table, following Kenma’s eyes. He vaguely remembers the due date being tomorrow, and more importantly, he still needs some of the heavier tomes. 

" _Or_ , you can come with me, and we make a detour to that cafe on the corner by that 100 yen store. I cannot remember the last time I have seen you outside, Kenma-kun!" Ryuunosuke laughs, even though he's worried.

"...I've been... outside..." Kenma says, hunching in further over his game during a difficult sounding battle. It's one of the colder autumns in Ryuunosuke's life, and he can understand how someone whose favourite phrase is 'summer's too hot, winter too cold', wouldn't like to venture out as the temperature keeps dropping. As if he could read minds, Kenma looks over his shoulder to the balcony door. “Also, don’t forget to close that, alright? I hate coming in from the cold into an equally cold home…”

Ryuunosuke laughs and promises he will. 

Even with the music low to make conversation easier, Ryuunosuke lets Kenma focus on his game and returns to his research, reaching out for the notebook and flipping it to the back to rip out one of the detachable pages. What he writes down has nothing to do with the killer or cooking. Folding it into the back pocket of the notebook, Ryuunosuke puts the notebook back, then stirs the food. He's instantly hit with another brilliant idea. Noticing Kenma's game music has turned to the type that sounds like roaming and not fighting, Ryuunosuke turns to him.

"City boy, let's do it like this—"

"...You live in this city also, Ryuu..."

"—we eat, we do the dishes before we leave the house. We return the books, hang out at the library for a bit, and theeen... we go check out the place of the first murder! The police have cleared out, and we're just going to look from the outside, promise!" Ryuunosuke watches Kenma pause his game, rest the console on his lap, and slowly turn to him with the usual disbelief.

"You want to go after him? I don't. That's stupid. People die that way. I won't go."

"I will change your mind," Ryuunosuke smirks, the way he does when he knows he’s won. Knowing he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, Ryuunosuke was equally aware of another fact few people knew about him. Often, his mind works in such high speed, illogical ways that no one, not even those who know him well, can follow. And before they were ready, Ryuunosuke could rope people in, entice them into an appealing web of mystery, and make them follow him into madness. 

"Hey, if I die, I will certainly haunt you and prove that ghosts are real!"

"Go alone, I won't come with you."

 

*

 

*

 

Kenma comes with him. The library trip was cut shorter than expected, given that Ryuunosuke had to pay a fine for another book he forgot to return and thus wasn't allowed to rent any new ones. Kenma could have done it for him, but Kenma had exited the institution of knowledge earlier, not wanting to be associated with Ryuunosuke.

Standing with his hands deep in his pockets, Kenma finds himself studying the corner of the street Ryuunosuke had led them to, then slides his gaze to the one opposite them. His eyes rise up and down.

"Fine, we're here. Now what?"

Ryuunosuke is busy putting the tripod in its proper position. The streets here are oddly quiet, but that's just better for the shoot. Kenma turns to him. In the exact same moment, the camera starts recording. Ryuunosuke gives a quick 'hold' sign to Kenma, who stays still. The lighting is perfect, and Ryuunosuke swoops from Kenma to the building, then back to Kenma.

"Opening shot, done. See how easy this is?" 

Kenma rolls his eyes. "It's always been easy to make cool opening shots. That's nothing new." 

Ryuunosuke rolls his eyes, then points the lens back to the opposite corner. He zooms in and out, knowing it will help to create Kenma's much cooler edits later. The last thing he films is the same panning motion from earlier, only from the sky to the corner. 

"Are we done now?" Kenma says, looking at his phone. Ryuunosuke notices his glances, quick ones Kenma thinks go unnoticed. They never do. Bending over the camera and messing around with the focus options, Ryuunosuke keeps his smile wide but private. 

They’ve had their ups and downs as roommates. The first two weeks were awkward, and there was a lot of avoiding each other. Getting used to living with another person who was so unlike yourself needs an adjustment period. Especially if you had no other routine than an unremarkable part time job and going to play volleyball in the evening every now and then. Ryuunosuke knew that his problem was also one of the heart. He’s aware of how clingy he can be, and he didn’t want to be a burden to Kenma. So he made it a point to keep to himself. 

Once the web series started, though, their relationship took off. Dedication to 'Feed the Bees' created obsessive behaviour. Long nights, early mornings, nap times at noon... he and Kenma shared it all. A rhythm was easily established after the first couple of episodes they made. 

Ryuunosuke thinks back on those last couple of months, when their series got more and more attention, bringing in a decent amount of cash. They didn't need to work side jobs anymore, and though they weren’t rich, they were content. 

On the side, Ryuunosuke made sure that their physique wouldn’t suffer, and that they get enough fresh air, too. Making sure volleyball stayed in their lives, he made an effort to drag Kenma along with him to their usual evening practice. Kenma hadn’t wanted to sign up at a neighborhood association after dropping out of university, but Ryuunosuke knew Kenma would miss the sport too much.

And then, after months of settling into this new rhythm, Ryuunosuke's heart couldn’t help but skip beats at the most annoying, most unromantic moments. Kenma fresh out of the shower, wearing a hoodie and sleep pants. Kenma's face, when it lit up at night as he played games on his handheld consoles. Ryuunosuke never understood the whole 'falling asleep and waking up next to a person' concept until he was the one waking earlier than Kenma. In his mind Ryuunosuke keeps up a distinct barrier between them, and makes sure to never flirt or come on too strong.

That barrier lowers as Kenma inches closer, as if Ryuunosuke is a heating system. He nods to the buildings on the other side. Not pointing, as his hands are deep in his jacket pockets. "I cannot imagine there being a stabbing lunatic in this part of town. Look, there's a bakery. You think the killer got his pastries from there after the murder?"

"Oh, good point. We should definitely come back here in the morning and check that place out, too," Ryuunosuke says. Anything pie-related was bound to catch Kenma's attention. “But no, it was the first victim who used to frequent that place. Rumor has it that the guy walked here every night at exactly the same time. He’d get the pastries that were then sold for a lower price. In the morning, he would park his car over there—the corner I just filmed. The baker says he saw the victim open the passenger side door to put the pastries down, as usual. When the victim began walking around toward the sidewalk to get in his car, the baker closed up shop and went to the back office. And that’s when the killer stabbed the guy. Bled out behind his car and wasn’t found until drunk salarymen came by an hour later.”

“So why didn’t he park his car closer to work?”

“Yeah, get this. He was a cheapskate. He parked here because it was free of charge. His office building doesn’t have a garage, and the prices there were a bit too high for the victim. He wanted to save money and that basically cost his life,” Ryuunosuke finishes. From his backpack he pulls out the A4 notebook on the case, marked ‘The Chinese Zodiac killer’. He adds the note that he and Kenma should get pastries and pies from the bakery and ask the staff it was alright to film there.

"It's cold. Can we go home now?"

Ryuunosuke wanted to get a closer look, but watching Kenma bundled up and shivering touches his heart. He remembers the piece of paper, currently hiding in his notebook at home: _buy for Kenma: long-sleeve, cozy, colourful? - > remember the party_. He has some clothing shopping to do tomorrow. Looking over at Kenma, fighting the urge to put an arm around his friend and lend him some body heat, Ryuunosuke smiles.

"Sure, let's go."

 

*

 

*

 

The fever starts. 

Instead of a small screen close to his face, Kenma is deep into his laptop. One more person has been killed just outside their car, and now letters are being published in a local newspaper. 

Including coded messages. 

"I knew that would catch your interest," Ryuunosuke says, making a decent effort to hide his smug smirk behind a genuinely sweet smile. Kenma looks at him once, disapproving of any smiling directed at his person, then reads through the article again. He didn't think there'd be a day he'd rather go ghost hunting than have Ryuunosuke invested in a killer. The usual crime stories they covered were cold cases, not on-going, anxiety-inducing killing sprees. Tokyo officials were considering a night curfew, but that would kill tourism and a lot of jobs that operated at night.

For now, the two of them were free to walk outside. The police call for caution, especially to those driving cars; most murders were committed inside or just outside a car. No subway has been the place of brutality.

Yet.

"I'm not interested," Kenma lies, as he has the coded message on wide screen. The scribbles make no sense. There is just a couple of romanized letters, and there's not a single hint of Japanese or Chinese. 

But every letter has been signed with the Chinese zodiac symbol for Ox. Funnily enough, there were also symbols for Scorpio—an abundance of them, in fact. Seeing these pop up every time gives Kenma cold chills down his spine. There was something about the danger in front and in the back, poison and sharp objects, while also having a multitude of feet... a hard shell. Kenma cannot shake the image of a scorpion's tail running deep under the skin, putting stuff into a person that doesn't belong there. Even though it’s a desert creature and not commonly found in Japan, the mere thought of a scorpion sets him off. 

Even if it's just a sign. 

On the other hand, the Ox symbol had something mighty about it. The intent to see through the things you started despite the consequences or morality, or even when the bull would see red and nothing else… Going on a rampage through the heart and suburbs of Tokyo, attacking strangers near to or inside their cars.

On a whim, Kenma follows one of his instincts. Not that his is a strong one... Opening a tab, he types in astrology compatibility with his favourite subject, a Pisces.

 _And Scorpio..._ The killer is off his mind as Kenma looks up a couple of websites about astrology. 

He knows the answer. Knows what the internet will tell him. It is favourable. One of those 'made for each other' compatible match ups, either as friends or as lovers. That’s all most people care about with astrology, with one’s star signs. Who is right for you, how people tick, to excuse oneself because of the day and month one was born. It shouldn’t matter as much as it does, and many non-believers don’t put any stock into ‘made up’ things from ever-moving, always-dying stars. Yet there’s so much more importance in the two zodiac circles than people know, so much truth in it they cannot see.

Brooding, Kenma exits the pages before he ends up reading everything he knows already, all over again. 

He does so just in time, as Ryuunosuke slides up to him, holding up a colourful woolen sweater. There's seven colours, each one more outrageous and in your face than the next. They're horizontal stripes, and some fashion magazines or Instagrammers might say that each colour compliments the next, but the entire thing looks...wild. 

Kenma hates it, how flashy it is. He makes sure that reflects on his face before he asks—"What the hell is that?"

"It's a soft woolen jumper, and it's for you. To wear tonight."

There was too much to unpack in those statements that Kenma reels back. He turns a bit sideways in his seat to face Ryuunosuke, something he doesn't like doing but has learned works best if he wants to make sure that Ryuunosuke respects his personal space. Defense by attacking.

"I do not recall giving you money to buy me the most hideous thing you could find... I already have clothes to wear, and I can shop on my own." Nothing with this many colours could be found in Kenma's current choices. He wasn't one to prefer black, but he likes decent colour blocking, muted pieces. Comfort in hiding. Not... this. Ignoring the entire last sentence and the idea of venturing outside these walls that they call home, Kenma pushes the jumper away when Ryuunosuke goes to hold it under his chin. 

Kenma falls backwards during the struggle, and Ryuunosuke backs off, draping the jumper over him. 

"Just try it on, it should be super cozy! Should keep your ass warm, too. It fits me, so it will be three sizes too large for you. Enough room to layer up; but I can guarantee you the place we're going will be warm enough." 

Still ignoring the other boy, Kenma holds up the jumper once he's sitting straight again.

"I won't wear this. Ever. This calls too much attention to myself. You know I don't like that," Kenma says, already seeing Ryuunosuke's lips move into a smile. Not good. He's not allowed to have a handsome face like that when Kenma is trying so hard not to please him. 

"The place we're going, if you don't wear something flashy, you will stand out. By not standing out! People will notice you more if you go with that basic nondescript look, Kenma." Ryuunosuke places a flyer on Kenma's keyboard. It's a party. All of Kenma's friends know that large gatherings of people aren't his thing. And Ryuunosuke still talks about it like it's a fact they're going. As if he doesn't know about Kenma's social anxiety...

"That's another thing. I won't be going anywhere."

 

*

 

*

 

They're standing outside the building. Music raves with heavy bass through the brick and unfinished walls. The mortar must have been treated specially, as it glows in the dark. A night club close to the beach, with Tokyo Bay just around the corner. It took a good hour to get there, but with the flyer as an entry ticket in his hand, Ryuunosuke knows it will be worth it. 

'A gathering of sorts' was a weekly party held for the weird and the macabre. Each month, there would be a more exclusive event for the strange. While being more ‘out there’ for normal party-goers, it proved extremely comfortable for a large group of people. In such a way, not everyone would know about it or receive a flyer invite. The girl who gave Ryuunosuke the flyer made sure to let him know this month's Chinese zodiac gathering _‘Wasn’t an event hosted in his honour’_. A failsafe in case the police catch wind of it. 

Ryuunosuke had heard rumours on the forums, too. Some believed the hosts were, in fact, trying to attract the attention of the killer. The flyer noted that buttons would be distributed to identify oneself as part of either of the zodiac circles. From what Ryuunosuke has read, the common theory was that the Chinese Zodiac killer was after very specific people, but no pattern had yet to be found among his victims. Ryuunosuke had them compiled on one page in his notebook. Nothing common in what they did, how old they were, what gender, or indeed, what zodiacs they had.

The event would, by chance, invite those interested in the murderer for lesser reasons; those drawn to the killer for reasons Ryuunosuke would rather not know. That said, there was a contact to be made here. Someone Ryuunosuke had seen in his usual forums.

Someone who works for the local newspaper, the person receiving the messages the killer has been sending. 

"This is insane. The party will be stopped the moment that the police find out," Kenma says, playing with the sleeves of his new jumper. He tried fighting Ryuunosuke hand and foot to wear something else, even as they were about to leave. But he wore it in the end, and it makes all the difference in Ryuunosuke’s heart rate. 

"As long as you don't call them, I'm sure we will be fine," Ryuunosuke laughs, pulling out his phone before he forgets again. 

“Come here, Kenma-kun~” Ryuunosuke uses his overly sweet voice, one that makes all the wrinkles Kenma hides appear at once. Kenma takes a step back, a force of habit. It doesn’t matter how small or nimble Kenma appears, if he wants to run, he runs. Ryuunosuke makes sure to slowly but intentionally step into Kenma’s space and pull him in for the picture. Kenma makes a face, looks down, then peeks back up through his bangs to see if Ryuunosuke is still taking pictures. It was on burst all along, and Ryuunosuke had taken about 30 shots with three taps of his thumb. Kenma sighs, knowing Ryuunosuke’s arm is there to stay on his shoulder. 

Most of the pictures are hilarious with the blurry movements of Kenma trying to escape. Luck has it that a couple came out really good, filling Ryuunosuke’s chest. Taking his mind off how cute Kenma looks, Ryuunosuke sends it to the contacts who would care most about Kenma being outside and doing an activity. And of course, to show Kenma’s awesome new jumper.

Meanwhile, free once more, Kenma looks up at the building with renewed distaste. Ryuunosuke is well aware of how this makes Kenma feel, so he puts a protective arm over the smaller man’s shoulders. 

"Come on, we've never done stuff like this before. It's going to be fun and new for our fans." Ryuunosuke drags Kenma forward. Equipped with mini cameras, they walk into the loud den of dancers and the strange. 

Ryuunosuke takes note of those with buttons. Just a few of them have the Chinese Zodiac killer's chosen identity, the Ox. A couple of people mixed Chinese zodiacs with Western ones. Ryuunosuke sees his own Pisces sign coloured with blue-greens. They pass a man somewhat older than them, explaining how he's not endorsing the murders, pointing to his own Ox button. Below it there’s an image of a Scorpion pinned, too. Kenma must have heard something, as he makes the following statement without looking back. 

"His birthday will be next month." 

"Huh, you know him?" Ryuunosuke looks over Kenma's head, too late to see what sign he was, if he had a mark at all. 

"No... but he's a Scorpio. Born early November."

"How did you know that?" Ryuunosuke asks. “I wouldn’t be able to make that connection, or even remember all the other horoscopes.” 

"I have some... knowledge of astrology. Given the case you so desperately want to pursue." Hearing Kenma say this somewhat warms Ryuunosuke's heart. It’s just like Kenma to not just focus on the Chinese animal circle, but also on the Western astrology. Once he’s interested in a subject, he gives his all to it.

 

“Hey, wait… isn’t your birthday before that, though?” Ryuunosuke can be bad at remembering certain facts about people if he doesn’t hear about them often enough; however, he’s pretty sure Kenma’s birthday last year was in autumn, while Ryuunosuke’s own is in spring. But Kenma deflects, turning his head down. Not a subject to pursue, or at least… maybe he should ask Hinata about it. Leaving it for now, Ryuunosuke points forward.

"Let's go by the bar, then up those stairs. My contact said he'd meet us there." Ryuunosuke had made sure with his contact that filming him would be fine. He and Kenma would only have to make sure to edit out the drinking. Making a mental note not to drink too much, Ryuunosuke flashes Kenma a smile and maneuvers around, making sure to keep him protected against the masses.

"Fancy word for when you mean 'internet friend'," Kenma says, reluctant to go towards the crowded bar. 

"Hey, we're not friends! Not yet, at least. And you're not one to judge? You're constantly online talking to people."

"I don't—talking strategy and telling people where to move their characters in combat games is not the same. And we're always randomly matched, I don't know a single one of those idiots," Kenma deflects, a lot more at ease bickering and defending himself over the loud music. Ryuunosuke orders cocktails that shouldn't be too heavy, with a nice taste. Kenma holds his close to his chest, careful not to spill anything on the new jumper he's wearing. 

Shuffling over to the stairs without incident, Ryuunosuke guides Kenma up first. He wishes he could have brought his nice camera to film this event. Instead, Ryuunosuke angles himself in a weird way to capture the dance floor, then stands back up so their audience can see the mixed neon and pastel coloured rainbow of the room. 

“You know you look stupid doing that, right?” Kenma says, simply removing his mini camera to do a much better job at capturing it all. Ryuunosuke laughs without feeling embarrassed. His mood was good before, excited for this case, but now? Ryuunosuke is not one to frequent parties, but once he's inside a club, he feels like he could go wild. 

Drinking as if he's about to, he turns back up the stairs. The heat of his drink goes down his throat, a little too much, a little too fast. But it's tasty, so he takes another sip. Kenma is already up the stairs, talking to the guy guarding the door. Ryuunosuke feels that he should join Kenma, to make sure the guy knows who they are. But it seems that Ryuunosuke’s description of Kenma has done its rounds, and Kenma is allowed to enter without a fuss. Not wanting to make his contact wait too long, Ryuunosuke hurries up, making sure not to slosh his drink (by sipping a little more out of it).

"Uhm, I don't think your contact will be much help," Kenma says as Ryuunosuke enters the more private room after him, seeing what he means and internally agreeing. Externally, he groans. Then he takes another sip. Kenma looks at him, his own drink untouched. "Maybe he will wake up soon?" 

But it's no use. Lying in a weird position as if collapsed, the forum guy is fast asleep. Ryuunosuke goes through the motions of checking up on the passed out drunk, having done so a few times with his friends from Karasuno. Everything seems in order, but Ryuunosuke takes no chances. He turns to the door and alerts security, who say they will call an ambulance and someone from the bar to make sure the guy is okay. Returning to his contact, Ryuunosuke lifts him up to lay on the couch in a more sensible and less back-hurting fashion. There wasn't more to do for him here, and Ryuunosuke guesses he can only try and schedule another meeting, another day.

“He doesn’t even smell that much of alcohol. If you get to this level, you’d have a stink on you,” Ryuunosuke says, looking at Kenma, who shakes his head.

"I never go to that level to find out. Anyway, I don’t think you can trust this guy. What kind of contact drinks himself to Nirvana and then sleeps like that... he didn't even wait till midnight. And even if he had waited, what sort of drunken conversation would you have to go through," Kenma says, quick to pass judgement. Ryuunosuke concedes he has a point there. Sure, some of the deepest conversations could be held with drunks… but not if they’re passed out like this. Maybe it was just a ruse, anyway...

"Well, there's only one thing left to do," Ryuunosuke says, swinging the remains in his cocktail around before downing it in one go. 

"Go home?" Kenma says, voice hopeful and hesitant. 

Ryuunosuke smiles wide. "No, the opposite."

 

*

 

*

 

The beach is close by and dark. No one else ventures here, or at least, no one Kenma can see or hear. Ryuunosuke lies on his back in a peaceful sleeping stretch, passed out. In the end, he ended up drinking half of the drinks he bought for Kenma, as well as his own. Watching how his flatmate had walked into the sea to relieve himself of unnecessary burdens, Kenma had to make sure Ryuunosuke didn't actually go swimming. It was a feat in and of itself that Ryuunosuke could still stand and walk without falling. 

A good thing, too. Those tiny lapel cameras weren’t cheap. Drunk Pisces, he's noticed, have a romantic view on all things nature when they're drunk, easily enticed by the moon and the water. Kenma had made sure to call Ryuunosuke back without going into the water himself. Not just because it wasn’t the right weather or even time of day to swim; Kenma didn’t want to get anything, water or… other substances, on this jumper. His jumper.

Strolling the beach until he reaches Ryuunosuke, Kenma bends down close to him. Sand runs through his fingers, mildly glinting in the unoccupied darkness around them. 

"I guess it's best if you stay asleep," Kenma says to the void, where not a single other living thing rests with them. The sand is gone from his hand as waves crash onto the beach, with its shells and rocks. Kenma sits down next to Ryuunosuke, waiting for the sun to rise as he stays a wakeful guardian over his sleeping friend.

 

*

 

*

 

He rubs sand from his eyes. It feels rougher than what others might find after sleeping. Ryuunosuke has gotten used to it by now, though. Yawning, he stretches his arms upwards, until he feels it in his back. He’s home, and Kenma’s efforts to tuck him in haven’t gone awry. This kind of deep sleep doesn’t always happen, but Ryuunosuke can imagine the possible culprits. Such as alcohol. He never understood why people would call it ‘fragmented sleep’ when consumption would give him the best rest. Removing his shirt, Ryuunosuke lies back down again after carefully considering his environment. Kenma isn't here. Probably gone to a bakery, or to the one across from the murder scene they visited. Getting comfort food for what he may think is Ryuunosuke's current headache.

Not that Ryuunosuke's bodily problem is that, per se. Within the confinements of his boxer shorts, a bigger problem arises. A much more pleasurable issue to deal with. While Kenma might not be here in his physical form, he's on Ryuunosuke's mind. In a lewd way. Ryuunosuke's hand crosses self-imposed borders and barriers, slipping down under his pants. It's then that he stops thinking of his friend, and instead imagines a _boyfriend_ , his Kenma, delving into one of his favourite fantasies. In this, the most innocent thing is Kenma calling him by his first name.

Over and over again. 

 

When he's finished, Ryuunosuke washes his hands. He looks at himself in the mirror, part in vanity, part in making sure he isn't blushing too much in case Kenma returns soon. As he checks for any betraying pink in his cheeks, Ryuunosuke notices that for someone who was wasted to the point of passing out, he doesn't look it. His skin is actually better-looking than the night before, as if he put on a good facial mask before sleeping or had a deep-cleanse scrub. 

Hoping he didn't actually use sand and saltwater, Ryuunosuke enters the kitchen and begins preparing tea. He shoots a text to Kenma, verifying that he's indeed on the hunt for some bread-y breakfast and not expecting a homemade Japanese one.

 **Kenma (๑ↀᆺↀ๑)** : Yes I’m buying breakfast. I won't do this every time you get drunk, so don't get used to it. Make sure there's tea when I'm back. And make it bitter.

Ryuunosuke finishes preparing the tea and setting the table, his eyes glancing at the balcony door. It was open when he woke up—Kenma sometimes does it to air out the room, even though he doesn't like cold drafts. Ryuunosuke remembers mentioning once how fresh air is nicer than a stinky apartment, given that theirs is a standard, single-room kind. Their built-in closet covering one wall was a huge help in ordering and storing things away, even if the dark wood makes the room look even smaller. The one near the entrance was smaller, and they used it more for kitchen stuff. 

Going to the door to the balcony, Ryuunosuke breathes in the fresh air on this early morning, before closing it (in keeping with the promise he made to Kenma a couple of days ago). It was nice that he and Kenma knew each other so well. Looking through the now closed window-door, Ryuunosuke stretches his arms overhead. Waking up early, even after a night out, was normal for him.

Even without what most of society would consider the normalcy of everyday life, they keep regular hours. While getting away with taking more breaks, they also work until late in the evening. Ryuunosuke would make sure it wasn’t every night, and that they would still occasionally visit a volleyball court to train. Ryuunosuke hadn't hated university, but it just... wasn’t the life he expected to have. Getting a sports scholarship had been a dream, an honour. Compliments to working hard in high school and winning championships as both Karasuno's shadow ace and ace alike. Despite this, it had quickly become too clear to Ryuunosuke that he wouldn't reach his own ideal, and that doing volleyball for a living wasn't what he wanted to do...

As he pours hot water from the electric kettle into a ceramic one, he's glad not to have to worry about that anymore. To not live with constant anxiety eating at him during the night, asking if this is worth continuing for another 2 years. It was a blessing that Kenma had felt the same way.

Thinking of the blond devil, Ryuunosuke hears the key turn in the door. Kenma, who never has to worry about re-bleaching as long as Ryuunosuke lives with him, comes in with a silent 'I'm home', toeing off his shoes before entering the apartment fully with his groceries. One hand holds paper bags containing amazing-smelling baked goods, the other carries a plastic bag from the Family Mart around the corner. 

No one during their high school lives would have believed that they could live together in perfect harmony.

 

During breakfast, Kenma puts his tea down for a moment to address Ryuunosuke. 

"I don't want to be dragged out like last night, and having to worry about you. So, I decided we're giving your next 'fun house' a try. We have to record something soon, anyway."

The tea is to Kenma's liking, as Ryuunosuke knew it would be. Without meaning to, he accumulated all the little things and absurdities that could make Kenma happy. Being on the receiving end of such happiness was a little new to Ryuunosuke. 

"Heeeh, that's rare to hear from a non-believer like yourself, Kenma."

"How to say...I'd rather go out hunting one of your fables than a real person who is murdering people." Kenma waves his phone at him, where a news article discussing two more victims glares at Ryuunosuke. Of course he knew about it. Ryuunosuke had made an excel sheet, thinking that the zodiacs of the victims, the places of killings and the ages must be important. He had started a list in his notebook, but… excel sheets had so many ways of ordering the information. And his notebook was starting to get messy with it.

Ryuunosuke winks at him. "Point taken. I haven't heard from my contact either, so don't worry. I'm sure we can cover this story once it's blown over and the streets are safe again. And anyway, the supernatural is more fun to deal with."

"Says you, only… We haven’t seen one supernatural creature, since they don’t exist," Kenma deflects, putting tiny amounts of a croissant into his mouth. "Don't eat everything, I brought enough for tonight, as well."

"As long as _you_ don't eat it all, I'm sure there will be plenty left," Ryuunosuke laughs, having already finished two of the larger croissants—the ones filled with chocolate are his favourite food when he has a hangover. Kenma's right, and Ryuunosuke shouldn't make it a habit to get wasted... but getting taken care of is a huge perk.

At that point, Kenma’s phone goes off. Ryuunosuke makes sure to not look too interested, and instead rips off some of Kenma’s croissant as he’s being distracted by the message. He makes a less than shoddy swat in Ryuunosuke’s direction without actually hitting him. Given the face Kenma makes, and turning the phone face-down on the table, Ryuunosuke takes a guess to who that could be.

“Kuroo?”

“...Yes.”

“Whaddhewant?” Ryuunosuke asks, hoping he can be understood through a bite of Kenma’s croissant. Weirdly enough, Kenma does. 

“Same old, same old,” Kenma says, not meeting Ryuunosuke’s eyes. He seems… odd all of a sudden. Ryuunosuke tries to make light of it by guessing that Kuroo might just have told Kenma there’s a practice match, and he needs him as a setter. Kenma shakes his head, then thumps his head on the table. 

“Headache?” 

“Might be… delayed hangover,” Kenma mumbles. Ryuunosuke cannot remember if Kenma did drink that much… he got them home, as he always does. Didn’t Ryuunosuke drink some of Kenma’s drinks, though… like, finishing the bottom half…?

He cannot remember for the life of him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The duo visits more spooky houses for their web series. Bokuto makes a hurricane entrance, as the old Karasuno 2nd year crew comes together for a group chat. 
> 
> And is Kenma... hiding something..?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so, this chapter is where I poured all my love for horror and Buzzfeed Unsolved demonic investigation prowess into. It was SO much fun tbh?? I also felt bad in the beginning of writing this fic that I only had ryuuken and like, none of their friends. So when I moved from draft to concrete writing, I added a couple of cute and fun themes.
> 
> Writing the interactions with their friends was sooo much fun~ 
> 
> Also I absolutely forgot to show off pics like... typical small apartments in Tokyo/Japan ;; I have very clear visions in my head of how their home looks like, and I can only hope that the anime watching people recognize some of the things I'm trying to do;;; I absolutely wanted to add in links and images of certain things but totally forgot o:

Dressed in a less conspicuous jumper than the one from the previous evening, Kenma has to pull up two layers of clothing before he can reach his phone inside his pocket. He hesitates before picking up, given that they're technically at work… even though they haven't actually started recording yet. In the end, he guesses it's better to deal with this particular friend sooner rather than later.

"Hey, Kuro." Kenma looks away from Ryuunosuke, who is making a final equipment check. Listening to Tetsurou can either calm Kenma down, or make him angry.

Tonight, it's the latter.

"No, I did go to practice...some time last week, I think... and it's open practice. We are helping out at the children's center this weekend, so I don't want to over-do it." Kenma actually wanted to skip out on that weekend thing, too. Maybe he could get away with saying he’s done other social events with Ryuunosuke. Biting his lip, he’s sure that Ryuunosuke would use one of his killer-kind smiles and get him to go, eventually, though...

_"Yeah yeah, I hear you. You'd rather play with Ryuunosuke-kun, isn't that right,"_ Tetsurou says, and Kenma can hear that he’s cooking food.

Kenma rolls his eyes. "No. He—That has nothing to do with it. You know I don't play for... for anyone." 

It was the most brutal truth. Kenma stopped playing volleyball after he didn't like it anymore. After a good university signed him. After two years of playing at a way higher level. After having to make new acquaintances, and getting used to an entire new team. Kenma stopped playing volleyball, dropped out of university, and chose to live together with Ryuunosuke and start something entirely new and different. His parents weren't happy with him also stopping university, but wouldn't make him finish getting a degree after talking to him. 

Ryuunosuke, for his very own reasons, had stopped living that life, too. And if it hadn't been for him, Kenma might have floated around aimlessly somewhere else. As it is, Ryuunosuke is the reason Kenma still plays volleyball, even if it is just a couple of sets with his friends.

_”Right, right… think you will be needing my help tonight? Bokuto invited me and a couple of others out for drinks.”_

Looking at a corner, Kenma spots a taxi stand. If anything goes awry, he could hail one. Shifting his eyes to check on Ryuunosuke, Kenma hisses into the phone. “...No. There’s… I don’t need hair colouring, I got it under control.”

_“I see, Buzzhead is around so we’re using code now. Fine, fine. But if Bokuto asks when you’ll come around, I’ll say next week, okay? Oh, and I do look forward to the new episodes!”_ Tetsurou laughs over the phone. _”It’d be funny if people knew about the true mysteries, though, don’t you think?”_

"Okay, everything's charged, battery'd, and ready to go. Are you ready to meet a ghost?" Ryuunosuke grins wide at him.

Kenma rolls his eyes. "Ghost don't exist," he says to Ryuunosuke, then turns on his heel to say goodbye to Tetsurou. 

"They do," Ryuunosuke argues, enticing Kenma to reply that they don't.

Once again he wonders how a Pisces man had been able to keep him from floating, when the same person has his head in the clouds all the time. Sighing, he won’t give into Ryuunosuke’s ruse. He’s already annoyed enough at Tetsurou’s on-going tactics. His friend threatening with Bokuto is a strategy Kenma has to find other counters for. He could deny Ryuunosuke and Tetsurou all he wanted; they’d either drop it or adjust their plans or strategies. But getting Bokuto involved… It wasn’t as if the top pick for the national team was trouble. But Bokuto would get into his house, pick him up, make Akaashi get Kenma’s purse and keys, and take him out like he was a handful of grapes.

Shuddering at the idea, Kenma deflects Ryuunosuke’s question about being cold. 

“No, I’m fine. Got your little notebook ready?”

“Yep! While we’re setting up the cameras, I’ll practice my narration a little bit.”

“Again…?” Kenma asks, taking the tea tumbler Ryuunosuke hands him. _So considerate…_ “I keep telling you… just read it normally without that ‘voice’ that you do and then record it at—”

Kenma looks up, not liking the look of this place. Ryuunosuke has already gone through the front door. 

 

*

 

*

 

Kenma points the camera on the ryoukan-turned-house as Ryuunosuke stands in profile in front of him. The camera pans on him as he speaks. 

“As part of our hunt for the paranormal, today we are brought to the suburbs of Tokyo. We’re standing in front of a family home which holds a tragic history, and gruesome murders. This is the Yamauchi house, formerly the Yamauchi ryokan. Let’s see if we can find some ghosts in this three-storey building,” Ryuunosuke finishes with a smile, and Kenma, as usual, murmurs a ‘nope.’ Kenma pauses the recording, then looks at the house. 

"Look, there's nothing here. We're just going to have a bunch of nothing on camera..." 

"Yeah, so we should place the cameras in separate rooms and in corners. That way, if we hear something—well, if my superior ears end up hearing anything at all, we can track it on camera," Ryuunosuke moves towards the front door, which was left open by the caretaker of the house. He’s been giddy to go here for some time now, but the old home has only recently been made open to the public. The forums have been raving about how ghosts have haunted this place, and the last two caretakers, to the point that its beautiful, large structure has been totally rendered useless.

"Are you listening to me?" Kenma asks as Ryuunosuke walks upstairs, hauling a motion detector out of his backpack. They're in the dead center of the house; there's one floor below, one floor above. Hallways stretching to either side. Where the railing veers into the floor, Ryuunosuke bends down to put the detector in its place, and waits to see if it’s operational. He waves his hands in front of it, and all four lights blink green. 

"Ryuu, I don't usually say this a lot—" Kenma calls up to him, but Ryuunosuke won't hear of it.

"You say it all the time! How are we supposed to catch any proof if we just leave after 10 minutes of no action? We have to give the ghosts some time to notice us, to find us intrusive. Also, I wasn’t done yet with my introduction...Can you set up at the foot of the stairs?" Ryuunosuke says. He wishes that one day they’ll have a professional cameraman filming them, and that maybe he’ll be able to record himself at home with his script. But as they lack professional lighting, hands to move other cameras or those lights, and the knowledge to even operate any of that perfectly, they work with what they have.

Kenma sighs, but does as Ryuunosuke asks. From the top of the stairs, once Kenma is ready and gives the signal, Ryuunosuke walks one step at a time, continuing the story about the house. Yamauchi Akio, his grandfather built the ryokan in the 1920s. Business wasn’t good, with no tourist spots close by. When it failed completely, the grandfather shot himself, and his son buried him close to the house. Yamauchi Riku, Akio’s son, didn’t do anything with the ryokan as Japan was in war time. Later on, he passed it down to his own son, which is how Yamauchi Manabu inherited it. Unable to make a fortune, let alone even get tourists here, Yamauchi remodeled the place for his family to live in. In the beginning, he had his younger brother’s family and his in-laws living here, too. 

“But as soon as everyone settled in, tragedy after tragedy happened. First, Yamauchi’s third baby died after 4 months of living in this house. Yamauchi’s brother had a store in the city, which burned down. Not wanting to leech off his older brother, he and his family left the home. Yamauchi was heard ranting about this at a local restaurant. He was heard saying, ‘My bum ass, no good brother, and his stupid wife. One setback, and they go running. Making me look like I am a tyrant who would bully them. They have no backbone at all; my little brother is just like my useless grandfather.’ Three months after his brother moved out, death befell the family. The wife and their only daughter died. This couldn’t be traced back to Yamauchi himself, but the locals were worried for him. He drank a lot during the funeral, and afterwards, the first hauntings started. Locals say that after Yamauchi spoke bad about his ancestor and recently bereaved brother, the ghosts came for him.”

Ryuunosuke makes it to the foot of the stairs, relieved he was able to do all that by heart. His smile fades when he sees Kenma shaking his little blond head at the camera, which he points at himself.

“Uhm, did you get all that?”

“Yeah, yeah… so where are those hauntings?”

“The sister-in-law and daughter? Down that way,” Ryuunosuke points, just to watch Kenma going into the opposite directions. 

“You’ve got a lot of script right… You could film yourself telling them about it. I’ll be behind you. But first let’s check this out,” Kenma says, going into a hallway that, according to Ryuunosuke’s information, was unhaunted. Sighing, he goes after him still. When they’re in the other hallway, Ryuunosuke sets up in front of Kenma, and films himself telling some of the history as suggested.

The in-laws from his own wife’s side had deaths, too. Yamauchi Aoi got so upset about it that she wanted to do seances, but her husband didn’t want any of that ‘nonsense’ in the house. An earthquake rocked the foundation, and the two families had to move out for a short period. Upon returning, Aoi’s mother shot herself outside the house—

“But she did not die. Aoi’s father brought her back in, even if there was nothing he could do for her. Aoi’s mother bled out inside the house. This happened in the other hallway, by the way,” Ryuunosuke says the last sentence in his normal voice, looking at Kenma in the camera, who walks behind him. He catches Kenma shaking his head, too.

“Stop doing that when I’m recording, god,” Ryuunosuke hisses, stopping the recording. While it's not unusual for Kenma to complain, tonight he's more irritating during Ryuunosuke’s story-telling. More adamant about leaving, too, than ever before. Ryuunosuke doesn't see any signs of tiredness or being cold; tell-tale signs that could lead to Kenma behaving like this. He usually just follows along, looks at his phone, becomes distracted by the mundane. 

No such thing tonight. As soon as Ryuunosuke stops recording for a second, Kenma walks ahead, opening sliding doors and saying there’s nothing before closing them. Checking corners and labeling them uninteresting before Ryuunosuke can get to them. Re-reading his notebook with his script and some of the information he’s shared with Kenma before, Ryuunosuke walks back to the staircase. He lets the camera roll, hoping Kenma will act normal and engage in conversation about the house. He has to nudge him once. 

Kenma sighs, but cooperates. “So this is… the ‘Darkest Tokyo’. Just for this silly little house?”

“Well, yeah. As you saw outside, there’s a severe lack of street lights, no neon signs or even an underground. The closest bus stop from where we came is a good 10 minutes walking distance,” Ryuunosuke walks upstairs, watching in delight as the motion detector detects him and blinks green in greeting. Behind him, Kenma is insufferable. 

“Is there anything on the second floor or just… dust and dirt to scare me? Nice damping on the footsteps, so at least you cannot claim hearing those.” Kenma laughs, moving ahead to open a sliding door. Ryuunosuke sticks his tongue out at him, glad he caught it still. Kenma’s fans love this kind of stuff, even if it’s very annoying at the moment. Coming closer to Kenma and looking into the room, he feels so much colder than before. 

“Oh, they kept the baby room…” Kenma says, pointing at a crib. 

“Yeah, and the mother heard it cry every now and then, after they buried it,” Ryuunosuke says, feeling his chest constrict. He knows this story too well, and doesn’t need to check his notebook for what he tells Kenma and their audience. “It was so hard on her, losing her child and later her sister-in-law. They were good friends. That’s why Aoi wanted to do seances in the house. Yamauchi was against it.”

Ryuunosuke’s eyes sweep the room, and he shudders at the idea of babies and seances.

“Don’t you feel that this room is colder than the rest of the house?” Ryuunosuke asks, only to watch Kenma slide the door shut.

“No, not in the least. Listen, I am sure we can find somewhere online better than... this place," Kenma says again after being silent for a whole minute. It's not his style to keep pushing it. Ryuunosuke cannot help but smile as a reason pops into his head.

"Ooohh, are you having a bad feeling about it? Is that it?" 

" _No_ ," Kenma says decisively, his forehead wrinkling. He walks up the stairs before Ryuunosuke can get to it. "Let's get this over with. Ghost don't exist, so I don't know why we're even trying."

"Shit, Kenma, I don't know. Maybe because we once decided that hunting ghosts would be part of the web series? That proving they were real would be a cool thing to do? If you don't want to do this anymore, or just want to edit the footage, I can ask Yuu to assist me, y'know." Ryuunosuke doesn't mean it, and there's the lightest hint in his chest that he may have to take those words back and apologize. Kenma beats him to the punch.

"That's not... I didn't say anything like that. At all. I'm not quitting." Kenma stands still on the top of the stairs, Ryuunosuke waiting on the steps below him. "It's just... after the Zodiac killer stuff... we have to be more careful going to places like this."

“Please, most of those killings have happened inside cars or around them,” Ryuunosuke is quick to remind Kenma. Then again, abandoned, silent places could become a new hunting ground. Feeling a cold touch down his spine at the thought, Ryuunosuke joins Kenma on the third storey, not wanting to think about it. Upstairs, the two of them turn right. There are three guests rooms that had been converted when the Yamauchi family moved in; their walls taken out and two support pillars put in place. 

"Here's where they all gathered during family meetings. There's just the rug now, but there used to be a long table. Space to comfortably seat 18 people. The cushions are in the corner, there: 17, one missing," Ryuunosuke points to a corner. "It's said that on the night of the murder-suicide, Yamauchi Manabu took a sitting pillow—his own—and used it to muffle the screaming. The pillow was never found."

"Or the cops took it, misplaced it, lost it... Who knows," Kenma says, leaning against the door frame. Way too casual an action for him. Ryuunosuke doesn't dwell on it as he crosses the perimeter. The room had no wall hangings, no decorations. Just the rug. Before the renovation, and still seen in the other rooms, there were two windows in each space. Without the walls, there are six, evenly spaced. Each of them gives off an eerie vibe, as light from outside shines in through the dirt-stained glass. The room was ill-illuminated, yet it was clearly visible that apart from dust, nothing out of the ordinary touched it. 

“So Yamauchi was at a point were he lost his mind. His in-laws thought the house was cursed with all that happened. Yamauchi’s grandfather buried here, baby dying after moving in, his brother’s store burning down and losing his family. So Aoi’s side of the family moved out, too. Their rooms were on the other side of this hallway. And, well, then Aoi’s father died in a car accident. He had hired a moving van, and on the day of the move… drove off the side of the road and into a large tree. Died instantly.”

“And let me guess, his ghost came all the way back here to tease Yamauchi about it. Has good tracking skills,” Kenma says, rolling his eyes. Ryuunosuke ignores him, and continues his narration, which he learns by heart to voice over for better quality later. 

"In a confessional goodbye letter, Yamauchi wrote across two pages, front and back, detailing a number of plans he made. His initial idea was to kill every member of his family, even those that married in. He thought the grounds were indeed cursed with his grandfather’s bad blood, which ran through the living, too. It tainted, in his opinion, mostly those from the Yamauchi line, which made Yamauchi want to to erase every person able to reproduce. ["I want to make sure that not a single sperm of this blasted family can see the light of day. Ours is a cursed family, and curses shouldn't be allowed to live on,"] he wrote. His notebook contained a 'late realization' that he was in fact a curse-bearer, and that only those in his immediate family surroundings were tainted."

"Exciting," Kenma says a moment after Ryuunosuke's words fill the bare room. "So he figured that he didn't have to kill everyone, but killing just himself wasn't enough either. Selfish, delusional..." 

Kenma stops himself from calling the dead Yamauchi a name. Ryuunosuke grins, saying it himself. "Bastard. That's what he was. So first he didn’t believe in anything at all, and thought holding a seance was nonsense, right? But then weird shit started happening, and he got it into his head that his family was no good at all, and that, including himself, everyone should die. Oh, and here comes the best part.”

“There is… a good part in your story?”

“Get this, Yamauchi’s wife Aoi eventually held a seance in the children’s room. She wanted to communicate with the ghosts of her husband’s family, and ask for forgiveness. A lady she drank tea with would tell everyone after that Aoi held a seance that might have opened a portal to the demon world. Yamauchi later thought his family, his blood, was cursed, so it became the popular belief that his grandfather was cursed for real, died because of it, then became a demon.”

“You’re making absolutely no sense now,” Kenma says, sweeping the camera away. “There’s a… portal? Where? I’d love to see it,” Kenma sweeps back at Ryuunosuke, who keeps his face still. Then his expression lights up as has an idea.

“Hey, speaking of seances… Wanna do the 1 minute here? The baby room is too creepy, and even I don’t want to sit in the children’s room if that’s where the portal had been opened," Ryuunosuke says, but Kenma cuts him short.

"...No. It's dirty. There’s dust."

"The dust is everywhere!" And it was normal in these kind of abandoned houses. Only a few places they visited knew of an upkeep and sweeped floors. Kenma wasn’t exactly afraid of gems or becoming dirty. Before Ryuunosuke can relay this to his friend, Kenma groans. 

"Stop shouting." Shining his own flashlight through the room with a finality in his eyes that nothing is here. "Anyway, he didn't kill them in this room...Right?" 

Before Ryuunosuke can attempt to continue the discussion, Kenma leaves. Ryuunosuke goes after him, naturally. It’s the weirdest behaviour, even more so since Ryuunosuke knows him a lot better now than he did two years ago. Kenma would at least look around and give more exciting commentary, even as a skeptic and a pessimist. Kenma tends to think that the points he makes and the arguments he comes up with are unquestionable. Ryuunosuke, a believer in all sorts of things, questions everything.

"Yeah, the murders took place in several rooms. Do you think the one where he committed suicide is the one we should go to?" 

"Ugh, no? I don’t know. Wait, which way is that anyway..." Kenma says to himself, his head sinking in on his neck as he tries to recall the layout of the house. He’s not as fast as Ryuunosuke, who prepares and knows every detail. This house had a weird layout after the remodeling, with some hallways having an even number of rooms, and others larger rooms on one side or odd numbers on the other.

"Uhmmm, let's see... Second door from the left. Here," Ryuunosuke says, one step ahead for once. Triumphant, he walks ahead, eager to have a first look at last. He hears Kenma quickening his pace, which is odd. Kenma never walks faster than necessary. And he wouldn’t be a chicken, either.

"Hey, don't leave me here."

"Scared?" Ryuunosuke grins, at the same time that a cold sensation runs down his neck. "Wooow, I just felt something! And look, Kenma, you unbeliever, no drafts or drains or windows anywhere close this time!" Ryuunosuke laughs, shining the light around. He's been made a fool of his sensations too many times by Kenma's logical explanations. He hears Kenma moving behind him, as if he's going to investigate what’s ahead of Ryuunosuke.

"Hey, I think the motion detector went off."

"W-what wait, really? Did it make noise... I didn't think we could hear it." 

"You're too busy being spooked by drafts. It was a draft, by the way," Kenma turns going back to the staircase. Ryuunosuke shines his light down the hallway and some yet unchecked rooms. But apart from the murder rooms, the rest shouldn't be very interesting. Sighing, he follows Kenma's back yet again. The oddest of sights, to be the one following for once. 

"Hey, we could take the camera we put downstairs and bring it up later. Maybe we can record some weird shit in that empty family room." He somehow wishes he hadn’t said that. Ryuunosuke once again feels a cold sensation down his spine, like a warning...

"No. I'm not walking the apparatus across the flights of stairs for nothing. Hmmm, here's the motion detector. Detecting nothing. I must have been wrong," Kenma says, looking from the detector to the camera. Ryuunosuke does the same, then feels as if someone moved the very last step from under his feet. His head becomes empty, and he notices a weird, sparkling dust coming from his left.

It isn't the first time.

 

*

 

*

 

His old circle had heard stories of the rogues. Those still in their learning phase, who exited their chosen circles before educational completion. But the rogues were hunted for abusing their powers. When caught, they weren’t punished... just... had their powers lessened. Forever.

Kenma has—since birth—been someone who keeps to himself. Kept to himself throughout his years in high school, when the loss occurred. He always had Tetsurou, and volleyball. No one connected to the ‘real’ world (apart from Tetsurou) knew about Kenma’s other side of life. Leaving university wasn't his first 'drop-out'. He could have stayed where he was, but decided not to be part of any group again. Finding his teacher had been a lucky draw, a good fit. Kenma didn't want to replace him with anyone else. It was too much work, and Kenma had been 14 and hurting, mourning someone for the first time. 

He never gave the higher powers a reason to mistrust him or to have them weaken his abilities. 

Playing at Nekoma had given him direction and distraction. Studying at university and pursuing volleyball felt alright to do for a couple of months, which turned to years, and never to a degree.

Doing this web series with Ryuunosuke was cozy, easy. It didn't feel like he was babysitting Ryuunosuke, and he's never been appointed an official guardian anyway... It was more a chance, a twist of fate that Ryuunosuke had been born on March 3rd, and placed him in the 12th house of the Western zodiac. But Ryuunosuke throws himself into situations with reckless abandon. Spontaneous, head in the sky, always exclaiming fearlessness when he's scared to shit. Of course, protecting Ryuunosuke against evil wasn't why Kenma stayed here. He genuinely cares for Ryuunosuke as a friend, first and foremost.

Because as soon as Kenma knew he had feelings, he vowed to never let Ryuunosuke know. To never think of it longer than a minute, to never look at Ryuunosuke with a sense of lust. Especially as they became flatmates, and Ryuunosuke exposed himself in vulnerable, trustworthy environments to him.

That is, as long as Kenma can keep baser dreams at bay, shutting off his mind before allowing it to imagine rosier outcomes or manga-like confessions of his deepest truths. A struggle he fights every day, some weeks worse than others. His longtime crush wasn't so easily diminished. It never dulled the way Tetsurou had promised him. Flaming lies. He never found someone else, either, given he’s not one to seek. His only solace was that Ryuunosuke didn’t care for meeting others as possible love interests. Kenma took a sick happiness in it that their friendship, and their other friends, were enough for them.

Kenma had just accepted that he could leave his old circle, abandon studies of any kind, not go outside for days and nights on end. Things might have been easier if he’d met Shouyou sooner, if they had lived closer together. Yet their circles had no official connection or bond, and so, they decided to never talk of it, to just… be who their friends thought they were. 

And as Kenma built his barricades and stopped hanging out even with his high school team, he couldn't get rid of Ryuunosuke. The ties between them were a thin, red thread of nothing. More fickle than sand. And twice as troublesome to acknowledge.

Three times as troublesome, even, to keep Ryuunosuke safe. Kenma sees the shadows move in unnatural ways. It comes as a shock that it's here, after all. Kenma had been so, so sure that upstairs was dangerous. Tried his best to rush Ryuunosuke, to annoy him, to deny him like he hasn’t ever done in their work. To the point where Ryuunosuke even suggested parting ways and going alone or with another friend. Kenma took the words as they were, said too fast and without a filter. It didn't matter.

What mattered was making sure Ryuunosuke wouldn't break a bone. Nor notice a thing. Nor remember the fall or the shadows or the movements of unnatural beings in the dark.

Fast reflexes weren't always on his side. Even though Kenma could think fast, he sometimes needed time for action. To get his gears going. Tiptoeing around his nerves and keeping a cool head helped. However, once he gets used to a situation and can read what's happening before it does... His only slip-up was bringing Ryuunosuke into danger, after so carefully treading three steps ahead all the time and checking every corner. It was the corner on the opposite side of the camera now causing trouble.

With a feint and well-placed words, Kenma made Ryuunosuke look the other direction; to the camera he'd hinted to move upstairs. 

Ryuunosuke's foot in mid-air, coming down on the second to last step, was as close as Kenma could cut it. Hands in his pocket, then out - muscle memory. His heart skips a beat, and Ryuunosuke's foot never makes contact in the proper way. The motion detector beeps like crazy, overstimulated by movement on all sides. _Incoming_ : the father, still holding on to a bloody pillow, mother, two children. Children who never grew up to be more than just deaths in a newspaper. Who crave a living body more than anything. In the distance, a baby screams.

_You won't have him today. Not ever._.

It was the usual. One hand in his pocket the entire night to spin a story, to create momentum. To release the intangible within a second. Then nothing. 

Nothing at all.

 

*

 

*

 

Pisces were naive people. In the early stages of growth, their minds are open, their hearts pure, their intentions clear; they wear their emotions as openly as they can.

Some would call them soft.

Others would call them gullible.

They were an easy target, up to a point. Hurt a Pisces for too long, and they turn. Warm beings full of trust can ignore you in a flash. Act like you don’t exist in a heartbeat. They can cut people out of their lives, completely forget they were even there in the first place.

Ctrl  
Alt  
Del

Gone.

Down the stream of life, as they continue swimming the opposite direction. 

That was the Pisces way, and in every aspect of it, the way Ryuunosuke chose to live. Kenma knew of two people Ryuunosuke left after they became asshole friends. He ranted for one moment, said he’s fine as he sipped tea, then ranted on some more. And the next day, when he’d truly thought through it all, he left the assholes in the dust. It was a scary thing to witness, the cold behaviour, the non-caring attitude. How Ryuunosuke deleted images and contacts and memories, as it seems, and went on with life. Unlike Kenma, who would brood and brood, even if he knew he was justified. It’s a scenario he never wants to find himself in, at the receiving end of a cold fish’s tail. 

Kenma looks at the keyboard, empty inside. Ryuunosuke is lying on his side next to the table, not making a sound. He's in a deep sleep. His deepest yet. _Control. Alternate. Delete._

He breathes out, steadying himself. Sand was not to be taken lightly, even if it's core being was lightweight. As light as Kenma is, eats, and feels. In the moment, though, his stomach feels like stone, dropped and left for dead. Disturbances have been filmed, and the footage shows the shadowy creatures distorting the recording. Feeling nothing, Kenma erases its existence. Selecting any odd behaviour of the house and making sure it’s never to be seen. The camera they placed in the corner had been stable, and so Kenma edits its more uninteresting view into the video. He's never worked this fast before, and Ryuunosuke may ask questions...

But there have been corrupted files before, and Kenma always knows what to say, how to bend the truth. How to justify his actions without revealing their true nature. The video will end in black if they don't return to record more, to give the usual scripted ending of ‘Oh well, ghosts aren't real after all'. Kenma doesn't look forward to returning there, but at least he knows now to avoid certain areas and corners. Places where whispers and shadows become real, harmful creatures. Desperate all for a second chance at life. They all try and try and try. 

There was no fail-safe way to keep them at bay, to mark Ryuunosuke without him knowing, to permanently keep him safe without Kenma interfering. Of course, there’s talismans and runes and tattoos... While the last two were too invasive and unknown to those uninitiated, Kenma wasn’t one to buy gifts for others. Getting a talisman for Ryuunosuke and making sure he had it with him at all times, that was just too much effort. Especially with a more natural, cheaper way: handling these situations himself. Cheap. His stamina had gone down, but it was a price he was willing to pay. The only interference Kenma allows himself. Ryuunosuke was worth it. 

For him to control the situation, alternate realities, and delete all evidence. 

If Ryuunosuke had been a Scorpio, he could sting back, could retaliate with more than the invaders bargained for. If he had been an Aquarius, the ghosts wouldn't bother. And if he'd been an Aries, he'd fight back against whoever tried to possess him. But he's a Pisces, a culmination of all 11 Zodiacs before the sign of dual fish. A most practical host, as he understands so many different people, and can adapt to almost anything. 

As a Libra, Kenma balances the sand between his palms, letting it run through his fingers. He used too much tonight. Ryuunosuke won't be waking up at a natural time, and he will wonder why. Done with their footage, Kenma sits back, letting his head and shoulders lean against the wall. He entwines his fingers, feeling the sand form into an orb. 

"Sweet dreams are made of these..." he hums into the air, eyes flickering over Ryuunosuke's form. He threw a blanket over him, a pillow under his head. He might have to move Ryuunosuke to make sure he won't feel stiff whenever he wakes up. The sand wouldn't kill him, couldn't put him into a permanent sleep. Only Kenma's ex-teacher was able to do that, his sand powerful. He died before teaching Kenma how to do it, how to avoid it, why it was against their laws to hurt intentionally. 

And Kenma did what he thought was best. Not apply for a new teacher, and leaving the Sand circle. He made sure to let Shouyou know that he wasn’t a part of that world anymore. And then he just… stopped learning about his abilities, without ever forgetting how to use them.

Falling back against the tatami floor, Kenma stares at the ceiling, seeing other things apart from the dimmed white layers. Making ghosts sleep was easy, and didn’t take much energy… if there was only one or two weak ones. But a murderer and the murdered, all hunched together, coming at once—Kenma hopes they found their way to the actual afterlife, or at least that they now roam their house in a less aggressive state. Whenever he makes them go ‘night night’, as his old teacher used to say, they at least forget that Ryuunosuke exists.

None, even the more powerful, demonic oppressed ghosts, would follow them here. 

 

*

 

*

 

He wakes up to a sharp pain in his shoulders. Groaning, Ryuunosuke opens his eyes, seeing nothing. Disoriented for the slightest second, his sense of smell and a strangely familiar feeling of ‘home’ takes over, ensuring him before he’s used to the darkness, that he’s in fact back in his apartment. He relaxes, until he notices that he’s not sleeping in his futon.

He’s on top of Kenma’s, with one arm under the blanket, curled around his friend. Becoming stock still for a moment, Ryuunosuke blinks at his own sleepy stupidity. He wants to back off, having the fear that he might have a bulge again but… it’s safe. Still, he should back off. Sliding his hips back, Ryuunosuke starts to, until Kenma stirs.

“...’S cold,” he says, grabbing Ryuunosuke’s arm as it attempts to slide off his person. Knowing he shouldn’t, Ryuunosuke returns, cuddling Kenma close against his chest. It hurts a bit, for reasons he doesn’t want to even voice in his own head. Kenma likes comfort and warmth, to be cozy, but not exactly cared for… usually. He might just be to too sleepy to care. Ryuunosuke smiles, chiding himself right after. He cannot enjoy this too much, or worse, get too used to it. Yet, his nose touches down on the bleached crown, sniffing at the freshly washed hair. 

As the disorientation fades away, Ryuunosuke’s mind tries to tell him something. About a house and a flight of stairs, of the pain in his leg and in his shoulder. There’s an itch behind his ear and on his nose. When he scratches it, he feels the smoothness of his skin. Sand gathering in his short fingernails. Before Ryuunosuke can think of getting up and seeing why there’s sand on his skin, Kenma starts moving closer against his front. Having to worry about other things, such as not having troublesome feelings, Ryuunosuke wills himself to think of anything else but the warm, lithe, perfect body sleeping against him.

Kenma trusts him enough to feel this safe in Ryuunosuke arms. He wouldn’t betray his friend, who never showed any romantic feelings toward anyone. Ryuunosuke sighs on top of the bleached crown, wondering if he should ever ask Kenma about his sexual orientation. So far, Ryuunosuke believed Kenma might be asexual, and even aro… But it wasn’t a subject he felt comfortable enough with to casually ask or pry into.

For now, it wouldn’t make sense to over-analyze it. If Kenma never speaks of it, then why should Ryuunosuke? It isn’t as if either of them has a very active love life… On Ryuunosuke’s part, he doesn’t really like the idea of casual sex without an emotional connection. He thought of it, whenever he’s horny… but then his mind drifts to the form currently lying in his arms. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t have a hard on right now. His gentle feelings are stronger than his horny ones.

He’s always had a soft spot for Kenma. Ever since getting to know him better in his third year in high school. And then, of course, as they had gotten drafted into the same university. 

 

*

 

*

 

They didn’t sleep in much. Just like when Ryuunosuke would get Kenma out of his university dorm room for morning practice five times a week, Ryuunosuke wakes Kenma up. The soft purrs of the sleepy person warm his heart, and he has half a mind to let him stay cozied up in his nest.

“But there’s no rest for the wicked, so… Get up, Kenma!” Ryuunosuke shakes him until Kenma lashes out, then pulls the blanket away. Kenma curls in on himself at the sudden loss of warmth, but gets up when Ryuunosuke stands. Rolling up the blanket they shared and the other one after, he opens the sliding door and puts them both in their place. Kenma walks over to him with the pillows, throwing them in with less sensitive care. 

“You get the futons, I’ll make tea and see what our fridge has to offer…” Kenma murmurs, turning to the kitchen. “What’s the plan for today?”

“Since my contact proved useless and never reached back to me, I thought we could take our laptops and work at the library instead? There’s a couple of things I want to work on, and you have to look up questions from our last few cases.” Ryuunosuke takes the futons one at a time, doing the same roll-up-and-store procedure as with the blankets. They have one shelf in the built-in closet for their sleep stuff. The throws are usually left out, given that Kenma tends to live inside them as soon as the end of September comes around. 

“Questions… yes,” Kenma says, his mental capabilities not yet started up. Ryuunosuke reminds him of what they had planned to add to their channel.

“Yeah! The Hivemind, remember? I wonder what our viewers will ask most about…” Ryuunosuke laughs, gathering their laptops and bags for later use on the low table. It was an idea Ryuunosuke had after Kenma got fed up answering a lot of questions over on their social media accounts. 

If they open up discussion, it would be better to gather viewer questions, and then answer them in a video. Just doing the last video wouldn’t be fun, so they would work their way through their last season entirely and make separate little videos about it. Kenma had been in favour the idea, as their current workload spread out in preparation for the current season. 

While Kenma likes to take care of the post-production, and Ryuunosuke on the pre-production, they still prefer to be together during their individual tasks. Once they had their breakfast and prepared for the day, Kenma writes down a list of things they have to do later on. Grocery shopping and laundry were high on the list. 

“Laundry, again?” Ryuunosuke groans, looking at their shared clothing basket. It was such a hassle to do laundry in this city, as no laundromat was close to them. 

“Your recent clothes are full of sand…” Kenma says, eyes up. “I wonder if it’s still from your nap on the beach.”

“What, that can’t be it. I washed those clothes a while ago. And that’s what I’m saying, I did laundry just last week.”

Kenma gives him a look that doesn’t brook any argument, one that suggests he’s already annoyed at still needing to talk to get his point across. “We have to do laundry every week, Ryuu. Especially after last night in that murder house. You sweated a lot and it’s gross to not have clean clothes.” 

Giving up, Ryuunosuke puts the large Ikea bag they re-use for laundry purposes next to it. “Alright alright, I will do it.”

“So about last night,” Ryuunosuke starts, as they walk to the door, ready to leave. “What happened? I kinda forgot after hearing the motion detector go off.”

“Uhm… I don’t know either. You suddenly fainted.”

“I did what now?”

“Fainted? Your eyes rolled back and you lost balance. It’s lucky for you it happened on the last step of the stairs, too. I didn’t catch you but was somewhat able to break your fall. Really scared me,” Kenma says, feet in his shoes first as he opens the door, key in hand to lock behind him. “I called Kuro to help me carry you out. He didn’t like it. Also told me to never mention again that he actually took a step into a house that could possibly harbour ghosts… I told him it was nonsense.”

Kenma’s childhood friend was a fan of their show, but too creeped out to ever come with them. Ryuunosuke had offered once, and Kuroo had turned him down with a laugh, a wave, and a bead of sweat down his temple. He should apologize to him, for taking that time…

“Oh and when I say he doesn’t want me to mention it, he means us. He didn’t actually want you to know he came into that house. To not make you think he’d voluntarily go in there or any other house like that again.”

“Uh, sure,” Ryuunosuke rubs the back of his buzzed head, feeling impish as they go down the stairs in their building. He feels bad about it, though he won’t mention it to Kuroo if that was his wish. Ryuunosuke wasn’t one who faints easily, and he cannot remember having ever done so… Sometimes, he’d get extremely tired on the job, but the doctor didn’t know what it could be about. He has a lot of energy, and a good positive attitude. Of course… there was this thing nagging at Ryuunosuke’s mind.

As they go out on the streets and head toward the closest library, Ryuunosuke switches subjects to a more lighthearted topic, making Kenma talk so he can think. If Kenma feels uncomfortable talking about this subject, Ryuunosuke won’t make him. He likes doing research on certain points of interest by himself, anyway, and it can be a lot of fun to put the pieces of a puzzle together, even if its regarding a person. Even if that person was himself, or his flatmate.

 

*

 

*

 

“Hey, how are you? Confessed to your crush yet?” Tetsurou asks, sliding in on the bench opposite of Kenma’s. The latter hadn’t been hungry enough to mind waiting 10 minutes for his friend, but when Tetsurou said he wouldn’t be at the agreed burger place for another 20, Kenma had gone inside just to keep warm. He now wishes Tetsurou would have cancelled their hanging out altogether.

“Ugh… I thought you’d dropped it,” Kenma says, alluding to the question Tetsurou had been asking since Kenma was a third year at Nekoma. It was so stupid too… Tetsurou knowing of Kenma’s feelings after leaving. After that, it was the same old, same old, in which Tetsurou tries to get Kenma to confess his feelings. After all these years, still. Kenma remembers last time, after he and Ryuunosuke had visited that… noisy club and Ryuunosuke ended up on the beach, passed out. 

“Never,” Tetsurou laughs, grin wide. “I haven’t used it in a while to give you a break.”

“Give me one, now,” Kenma moans, unwrapping his hamburger from the plastic around it. He’s been wary about Tetsurou’s invite today, but he’d easily take volleyball practice over this subject. Tetsurou would ask him questions like this out of nowhere to catch him unawares, hoping to get a juicy detail out of him. Kenma’s life was juice-less, apart from doing a web series and keeping Ryuunosuke out of trouble. 

Ryuunosuke, whom he had liked for too many years now. There was no sight of his feelings vanishing. And Kenma had never met anyone else on purpose. Not because he has hopes for Ryuunosuke, but…

“Don’t you think that, if two guys live together—No, hear me out!” Tetsurou says, twirling his fry. “If two guys who have lived together over a year, _both_ not ever mentioning affairs or boyfriends or girlfriends, that maybe, Kenma, just maybe, they _both_ have feelings for each other?”

“No way in hell.” Kenma shuts his best friend down without blinking, taking a bite out of his hamburger finally. Every time it's the same… he listens to Tetsurou as if he could possibly have a point. Kenma had halted eating as Tetsurou spoke, but once there was just more nonsense of the same brand he’s heard before, Kenma couldn’t be bothered. He had finished his fries before Tetsurou came, and now the burger had to go, too. If they stay and talk about better subjects, Kenma might consider staying here longer to eat an apple pie. Later, he could go by the melonpan uncle around the corner to get something for Ryuunosuke, too. All this talk about him… 

Tetsurou sighs, a genuine, well-meaning smile on his face. 

“Doesn't it… hurt?” 

Kenma swallows his food after chewing, shaking his head. His hair falls in his face. “It’s… dull now.”

“Kenma, that doesn’t sound good,” Tetsurou says, slowly starting to eat his fries and drink his coke. “Have you guys never… talked about any of that stuff? Maybe gauge Ryuu-kun’s interest? You know, I’m not supposed to know this, but Yamamoto did tell one time that Ryuu-kun is… you know. Not averse to guys.” 

Same old, same old. Tetsurou would always give him advice like this. Kenma would reject it right away, but think about it all the time. Then lose courage when seeing Ryuunosuke again. He knew what Tetsurou was hinting at. Taketora had told Kenma, too, in confidence. It was right before university started, when Kenma would see him again… train with him, be on the same team. They didn’t have the same classes, but they hung out during lunch, Ryuunosuke shielding Kenma from social interactions without draining his energy. It had been nice, to have a friend like that. And then they both quit it all. Decided to live together.

Ryuunosuke likes both girls and boys. And still… Kenma has never seen someone special in Ryuunosuke’s life, nor heard of past lovers. Ryuunosuke wasn’t a private person about those things, and Kenma sees him as someone who would gush over their love. There’s been no one at university, at the club, in the night life activities Kenma has been dragged to on occasion. And then, when they’d both been lost at where their lives were headed, Ryuunosuke had spoken the magical words.

They were locked into Kenma’s heart. A suggestion for something wild and crazy, which he hadn’t rejected right out.

_”Hey Kenma, how about… you come and live with me! We could start a cool web series, become online content creators… I’m sure it would be fun! Whaddya think?”_

“You’re thinking about him,” Tetsurou says, matter of fact. As if he can read minds. He hates being caught in the moment, and that Tetsurou is right… but his friend cannot know.

“Am not…”

“Yes, you are.”

“Am not.”

“...You are, though! Cannot wipe that fond face off even if you’re trying so hard!” Tetsurou laughs, eating another couple of fries in one go. “Anyway, what is that elusive lover of yours doing tonight?”

“He’s not… stop saying stupid stuff, Kuro. Ryuu is chatting with his friends. He said they would do a conference call, and because those are always so… loud… he’s doing them when I’m out here. Being harassed by you,” Kenma says, considering stealing just one fry off Tetsurou’s tray to teach him a lesson. But given that he wants to have apple pie later, he decides against it. 

That’s of course when fate shows him that he should go with his gut-feeling. Running with a warmed up apple pie in hand sounds like a brilliant idea, as a loud noise whirlwinds through the sliding door, and directly to where Kenma and Tetsurou are sitting. 

“You did not,” Kenma murmurs, glaring daggers at Tetsurou’s wide grin. He’s not even trying to hide it, putting his chin on the palm of his hand.

“Oh, I did. You have other friends too, you know. And they tend to miss you,” Tetsurou gets to say, before Kenma’s side of the booth isn’t a viable escape route anymore. Not with Bokuto Koutarou blocking it with his body, overblown presence, and stunning smile. An arm slings around Kenma before he can sit back further away, and he’s pulled in for a strong one-armed hug into Bokuto’s side.

“I forgive you,” Bokuto says, stealing one of Tetsurou’s fries. “Say, didn’t I text you to get me some food ready?”

“I never asked for forgiveness,” Kenma is able to say with his face squished, as Tetsurou points an accusatory fry at Bokuto. 

“And I’m not your secretary or your caretaker or your handler. Pretty sure Akaashi still fulfills those roles to your satisfaction.”

“Akaashi is a lot more than that! How dare you.” 

“Wouldn’t he also want that you’d… eat healthier after training?” Kenma asks, pushing his hands against Bokuto, who of course doesn’t budge. Kenma is sure that Bokuto gained weight in muscles yet again. 

“What I eat here will be burned away as soon as I’m done, and I’ll have 500 grams of vegetables tonight, anyway! But okay. Since none of my friends seem to care that I get new energy as soon as possible, I’ll go myself,” Bokuto says, roughing through Kenma’s hair. He’s too strong for his own good, and shakes up Kenma’s entire head. “And you! Don’t even think of leaving. I’m faster. Coach said my sprints are, at least. And I know where you live! I agreed not to bother you because Tanaka-kun asked me, but I will come there if you make me, Kenma!”

Bokuto makes that declaration, and is gone the next second. Kenma’s head still spins a bit, but he caught that last piece of information. He hadn’t known his house was not yet infiltrated by Bokuto because Ryuunosuke asked him not to.

“Ugh, I want to go home,” Kenma murmurs. Tetsurou is signing Bokuto to bring him extra fries, and they exchange a series of other, secret signals Kenma doesn’t understand. Watching it without trying to decipher, he wonders just when and how these two ever had the time to create a language of their own between them. They both laugh, less loud versions of what Kenma is used to. Checking his phone, Kenma is brought out of checking the news when Tetsurou utters an even more private laugh to himself.

“What..?” Kenma asks, not liking the look on Tetsurou’s face. Not one bit.   
00  
“You just want to go back to your Ryuunosuke-kun!”

“Keep your voice down… and he’s not mine,” Kenma sighs, hoping he doesn’t sound too bitter. Tetsurou shows a bit of empathy, but it’s gone when Bokuto walks back. Everyone knew that Bokuto sees himself as a matchmaker. As soon as he gets wind of Kenma’s feelings, the latter’s life would be a lot more turbulent and less controlled. It would be chaos, just the same kind of colourful, overzealous display as Bokuto’s tray looks like. The amount of food on there makes Kenma sick to his stomach. 

“You’re not eating all that.”

“Nope! Fries for Tetsurou, and a hamburger for you!”

“I didn’t ask for that,” Kenma tries to push it away, back to the pile of hamburgers Bokuto bought for himself. There’s no fighting Bokuto, on anything. Thinking it's better to eat in tiny bites and than to continue try to go against him, Kenma decides to take the apple pie home for much, much later consumption. He needs it after dealing with Bokuto.

“Yeah, well! Sometimes our friends don’t ask us anything, or talk to us, or give us a call, or come to open practices, or visit us, or you know! Let me know they’re alive apart from their web series and social feed reactions. And I thought you’d become quiet after going to university… This is even worse!” Bokuto says, somehow managing to take bites of food between accusing Kenma of being a horrible friend to him. Sighing, Kenma picks at the top of his bun, pouting that Ryuunosuke isn’t here. “Yamamoto has been complaining to me, too. He doesn’t get to see his best buddy at all, after Tanaka even came all the way here to Tokyo. You two are just hogging each other up in that apartment and sometimes do very cool stuff. And you never reacted to my suggestion to have me on as a guest!”

Maybe he should tell Bokuto he was sorry. He could deal with Taketora another time. But before Kenma can open his mouth, Bokuto swallows the rest of his first hamburger, before addressing him again.

“The way you behave… one would think you have a sweetheart no one knows about!” Bokuto’s voice booms, catching the attention of several groups around them. As if that wasn't enough, Tetsurou laughs himself almost off his bench. Kenma wonders if he could get away with somehow using his ability...but then he remembers. Bokuto is basically immune, and his body won’t react unless he’s close to exhaustion. 

Kenma just has to get through this, and promises to be a better friend in the future.

 

*

 

*

 

Settling back into the floor-chair with a beer cracked open, Ryuunosuke messages his friends. As their chat ceases all talk, they appear online in another app on his laptop, one after the other. Once everyone is there, Ryuunosuke presses the button for the video call.

Chikara appears, his eyes empty. A look Ryuunosuke remembers from messing up or doing something stupid.

“Tanaka… you have to press the one with the ‘more’ people option! Here, let me do it. Otherwise we won’t see Nishinoya,” Chikara sighs, his eyes already glancing at the button on his own screen. Before Ryuunosuke can blush, sputter, or reply in any sort of way, the call ends. It starts up right after, with Yuu yelling at everyone as a form of greeting. 

“Hey, wait a second! It’s just you and Ryuu… where are the other two?” Yuu asks, his face blowing up in the camera as he leans forward to look for them. Two videos appear side by side, and Ryuunosuke can see his own camera projection beneath them. Kazuhito and Hisashi both declined the call, but Ryuunosuke doesn’t see them in Chikara’s room, either. 

“They’re on their way. Hissan wanted a little… change. He says with so many friends in other cities, he, ‘a country bumpkin staying in Sendai’, doesn’t want to be left behind in terms of style,” Chikara explains, immediately making Yuu lash out about Sendai being a ‘big city’ too. That Hisashi shouldn’t be ashamed. Ryuunosuke sees that Yuu is outside during a water break from training, holding his phone and trying to make sure it doesn’t shake to much as he speaks. In the other live video, Chikara has both elbows on his table, hands twisting in front of his face, nodding at what Yuu explains to him. 

“That’s all good and well Noyassan, but have you forgotten about last year?” Chikara says after a moment of contemplation. Ryuunosuke watches Yuu’s face turn to the side, trying to remember. Chikara only used Ryuunosuke’s nickname for Yuu whenever the latter made a mistake. In his year of being captain at Karasuno, he’s started calling his friends by nicknames: Noyassan, Hissan, Kazun, and Ryuu-sama. The situations he used them in made them mostly a form of mockery. 

“Huh, what do you mean?” 

Chikara closes his eyes, whisper-shouting through his hands as he cups them around his mouth to amplify himself. 

“It’s in the middle of autumn! Where is your jacket, Nishinoya!?” 

Laughter erupts from Chikara’s video, as their other two friends walk in, the words ‘captain voice, captain voice’ being chanted. Yuu shakes one end of his towel at his phone. 

“I don’t need one, I have this around my shoulders! And it’s not that cold here in Osaka, either!”

As Chikara and Yuu start to bicker, Ryuunosuke waves his beer at Hisashi and Kazuhito. They wave their own back at him, then open them at the same time in stereo beside Chikara’s ears. Chikara has been so distracted by Yuu’s taking seasonal changes too easy that he didn’t notice what was happening on his own screen. Now, he swipes at his friends, missing them as they saw it coming.

“Accept the call on your own phones already and leave me alone!” Chikara says, watching the two of them sit on his bed. A moment later, Kazuhito’s phone joins in, with Hisashi’s face plastered to his side. 

“Hey, Tanaka, Noya!” Hisashi has his undercut freshly shaven, which must be Kazuhito’s handiwork and the reason they were a little late. They all exchange greetings and how the weather is, how everyone is doing. Every time Chikara answers, he seems to be sighing, as if talking is too much for him at the moment. Ryuunosuke remembers that Chikara, back when he was captain and studying for entrance exams.

Ryuunosuke laughs. “Someone’s stressed.”

“Has been all week. Stupid finals,” Hisashi grins.

“Yes, finals!” Chikara exclaims, showing off what he has to learn for it. There’s too many post-it tabs for Ryuunosuke’s liking. _A life I left behind_. Chikara rams the book against his head. “Go. In there. Information!”

Yuu’s barking laughter rings through Ryuunosuke’s speakers, and he tries not to choke on his sip of beer. As Hisashi is stroking his newly shaven undercut, he tells Ryuunosuke about Chikara’s stress levels. And how they were _supposed_ to go out tonight, so he would be less stressed, but Chikara was a slow learner.

“Anyway, let’s talk about something more fun,” Kazuhito interferes, before Chikara stands up from his chair and attacks Hisashi (and with him, Kazuhito, too). “When’s the new season starting, Tanaka?”

“We are still filming stuff! A lot of things have been going on lately… buuut, we’re totally planning on a Halloween special.” Ryuunosuke smiles, his chest full of happiness that his friends genuinely care about what he does. “Anyway, Tokyo has been crazy lately. Have you guys heard of the killer we got here?”

“You mean that Chinese one?” Chikara says, and Yuu is quick to correct him.

“He’s not Chinese! I read about it, after Ryuu told me about that insane lunatic.”

“You know, saying he’s a lunatic already implies… nevermind,” Chikara says, his posture becoming better as he sits up. “Isn’t that scary… are you guys still going out at night?”

“Yeah, Kenma isn’t here right now.” Ryuunosuke sips his beer, not liking the silence that follows after telling them about Kenma’s whereabouts. He lowers his beer slowly, using it as a shield as one of his short eyebrows arches up. Chikara shakes his head, Kazuhito tries to suppress a moving corner of his mouth. Hisashi and Yuu have identical faces, a smile frozen in place. Something is not right. Then, Ryuunosuke blows into the opening of his beer, making it whistle. 

“Guys, I told you before, there’s really nothing going on between them! They’re just best friends, thats all.” Roaring laughter comes from the two sharing a screen, and from Yuu who is always louder than any of them, despite (or maybe because of) his size. Chikara rolls his eyes. 

“Trust me, Ryuu-sama, _no one_ in their right mind and with two functional eyes would believe that,” Chikara says, making Kazuhito for some reason finally lose his battle against his face; he breaks out in that wheezing laughter few outside of this group have witnessed. Their reaction tells Ryuunosuke he’s missing some kind of joke, but he doesn’t want to ask. He made that mistake once, and only received a lot of ‘we’re so sorry for you’s in response. His friends, for some reason he couldn’t understand, would have this weird thing going on whenever Ryuunosuke mentions Kenma. 

“ _Anyway_ , most murders have happened inside or just outside cars. Kenma and I don’t have one,” Ryuunosuke says, catching Hisashi saying ‘he and Kenma don’t have a lot, sadly’. Confused, Ryuunosuke just looks at Yuu’s screen, who has become oddly silent. 

“Just take care of yourself, alright?” Yuu says in the end. “Is it still safe to go to volleyball at night?” 

“Yeah, that’s super close, a well-lit place, and with loads of traffic,” Ryuunosuke explains, thinking how it’s been some time since he and Kenma had gone… there were too many other activities at night they were busy with. Thinking how it’s not _that_ kind of activity, he notices Chikara looking deeper into his laptop. 

“Say, are you sure you’re still working out as much as before? Or is that shirt you’re wearing hiding it all?” All of a sudden, all of his friend’s eyes shift to him. Chaos ensues, as it usually does. Ryuunosuke gets up at one point to remove his shirt, even when Kazuhito and Hisashi yell that he really doesn’t have to, and Yuu cheers him on to show off. 

Almost an hour later, when Chikara gives up on learning (which was forfeited by the start of their conference call, anyway), Yuu and Ryuunosuke watch on as Hisashi throws fresh new clothes at Chikara. Chikara tries to file a complaint about how his clothes right now are still suitable for drinks in town, but Kazuhito says they’re not. 

“You know what you’re known as at the places we’re always going to? ‘The boy with the striped shirts’! Everyone always says it,” Kazuhito complains, as he also pulls Chikara’s chair away from his desk, turns him around, and shoves a loud, protesting Chikara out of the camera’s vision.

“Kazuhito is just annoyed because it brings everyone’s attention away from him. Anyway, good night you two! Nishinoya, good luck on your individual training, okay? Don’t make it too long! And Tanaka, stay vigilant,” Kazuhito waves as they all exchange final greetings. Hisashi, by the sound of it, is making Chikara strip. Yuu’s laughter rings through even as Ryuunosuke closes the desktop app and ends the call. Standing up, long since refreshed, he wonders if he should actually think about a gym subscription...

He’d always believed that their work had a good balance of desk job and outside activity. They have gone to practice maybe a little less, but surely Ryuunosuke’s physique hadn’t suffered that much… Chikara must have just wanted to mess with him. Kenma could be pretty savage, and would have said so if Ryuunosuke had gained weight. 

Finishing his second beer unbothered by the calories, Ryuunosuke moves away from the low black seat, and cozies up in blankets. He should push the table against the wall if he didn’t need it anymore, but he was content with not… doing anything at all. Sleep didn’t take him easily that evening, but it did catch him eventually. The last thing Ryuunosuke remembers thinking is how nice it would be if Kenma would look at him in a different light, see him as more than just a friend… would have actual emotions looking at his body...

 

*

 

*

 

“I’m home... Finally,” Kenma sighs as he walks in, sure he cannot move another muscle. This had been worse than training. Fun, to some extent. Bokuto’s ‘Super awesome surprise Kenma abduction visit’, as he called it, hadn’t been such a big surprise. Kenma knew that he’d show up one day, given that Kenma had been evading him every time Tetsurou mentioned their loud friend. Through the years of becoming taller and leveling up his buffness to accommodate the growth, Bokuto has risen in the ranks of his university team. However, growing in every aspect, Bokuto also takes up more space with his presence, draining Kenma all the more. 

Wherever Bokuto went, people would look. And the looks would drift to Tetsurou’s hyena laugh, and sometimes to Kenma, noticing him as an afterthought (or so it felt). 

Kenma, undressed of shoes, jacket, scarf, but not yet his woolen beanie, drops a melon pan he bought for Ryuunosuke on his way home on the table. It’s then that he notices that Ryuunosuke has fallen asleep sitting against the wall in a heap of blankets. Well, it was a heap, at some point. On one side, the blankets have migrated from where they probably were pulled around the shoulder. The visible arm has slid off Ryuunosuke’s lap, lying almost boneless to the side. Contrary to popular belief among Kenma’s friends, Ryuunosuke doesn’t snore at all. His breathing is even, silent. 

One of the silent aspects of Ryuunosuke that so little people see, or understand. From what Shouyou has told Kenma, Ryuunosuke had silent moments, yes, but they came so few and far between. Moments of reflection and focus, mostly during volleyball. 

Squatting down to his knees, Kenma sits close. Ryuunosuke was touchy-feely with his friends, but he’s always kept a respectful distance from Kenma, never overpowering him or being rough. Not that Kenma was delicate, as Taketora would often prove when he was over. Those two would double in volume and presence, easily rivalling Bokuto… but neither of them ‘took’ energy. Kenma smiles to himself. No, in Ryuunosuke’s space, he felt safe. Someone who gave more than he took. And gave freely. 

Too tired to think straight, Kenma moves the fallen blanket gently aside to make space for himself. For just a moment, he puts his head on Ryuunosuke’s chest, nice and firm. He listens to his heartbeat, a gentler heart he’s only known in some of his kouhai and his senpai Kai. Breathing easy, letting the silence of the room and Ryuunosuke’s breathing calm him, Kenma relaxes from his outing, feeling himself recharge. He makes sure to not fall asleep, and sets a timer on his phone to make sure he won’t be caught in the act of cozying up to his friend. 

For a mere moment in time, he can imagine they could be more...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also just as an insider; this fic isn't for Glitchy at all.  
> I just wrote it as a huge ass call out post for Nana. Honeys, the amount of 'mood' and 'this is me' and 'DONT CALL ME OUT LIKE THIS' I had to endure from this one beta :'DDDDD
> 
> (jokes Nana, I always love you and the amazing job you'd done helping me through this fic!)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes Ryuunosuke is lost, but he always finds home. Home, where his heart is. Home, where his roommate is. The duo goes on a trip to get tea, visit a cafe, all the while Ryuunosuke plans something sweet for Kenma's birthday. 
> 
> However a killer is still on the loose in the metropole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing this for the Fantasy HQ!! Exchange was an absolute blast. I love Tanaka so much and I'm so happy I was able to write, and even receive (!!!) fics featuring him. He's such a good egg and I love him to bits. Writing Kenma isn't always easy for me, but with recent chapters/the Nekoma match, I was able to get such a better view of him. 
> 
> I'm just so sad I didn't get to add Yamamoto... but there's always other fics where I can feature this mohawk bad boy :D~~~
> 
> ANYWAY PLEASE ENJOY!! I'm so pumped to see the reaction to a couple of twists and turns and revelations :D

The Chinese Zodiac killer has struck again, this time a boy, 19 years of age, a Virgo, who was found dead between his parked car and his apartment building. He had come home late after cram school. Unlike most third year high school students who finish up their last semester and prepare for the next stage in life, the victim had taken a year off to work and travel overseas, wanting to truly focus on getting into his dream university without worrying about high school. 

For a moment, his fingers halt over his keyboard, and he looks beyond the screen. Ryuunosuke stares at the fence around their miniature balcony. Feet outside, ass on the floor inside, he feels his mind drift. It’s cold out, but he likes it, and his memory brings him to a sunnier day, at the beginning of spring. 

They had just placed second at the Spring high, losing to Nekoma in a 5-set match. His last Battle of the Garbage Dump. And Kenma’s, too. Three days later, Ryuunosuke received offers to an university in Tokyo. His performance had impressed a couple of schools, but this one was actually prestigious, and normally out of his league. What a rush it had been, after the loss… but it hadn’t felt like losing when Ryuunosuke shook Kenma’s hand, both vice-captains of their teams. 

They’d meet again, intuition had told his gut, and they would.

_“Isn’t that nice for you, Tanaka-san? Being able to go to university without having to worry about entrance exams,” Tsukishima says, his voice becoming cheekier and hinting at suppressed laughter with every word he adds. Hinata meanwhile bounces up and down, holding his phone in hand._

_“Kenma was asked by the same school! Nekomata-sensei told him that they want you_ both. _That’s so cool,” Hinata bubbles, getting shoved by Kageyama for the trouble. Yamaguchi does his best to calm them all down, while Ennoshita stares at Tsukishima still for his comment. And so is Ryuunosuke, after he finds fresh socks to wear after practice. He, Yuu, and Ennoshita had decided to wait out their graduation from the club a little bit, to make it easier on their kouhai._

_Currently, Ryuunosuke is thinking of throwing his dirty socks at Tsukishima’s face._

_If he hadn't have been so distracted by Hinata’s information, he might have. Kenma hadn’t texted him about it. Not that he had to… they had exchanged numbers once, but hadn’t really kept up much contact afterwards. Only because Ryuunosuke had found one brief spark of courage to ask for Kenma’s number, and then he promptly lost it after the pudding-head (freshly bleached by Taketora for making it into nationals) actually gave him the contact details._

Ryuunosuke’s mind shifts and drifts, from one sunny day to a colder one in autumn, a week before Kenma’s birthday. 

_Ukai and Takeda had invited Nekoma for a practice weekend, to celebrate both teams making it to nationals. It had been that meeting where Ryuunosuke had felt a spark in his chest, kept it from going wild, yet fumbled to still get close and get to know Kenma. At the end of the weekend, before Kenma ran off to the bus, they exchanged numbers._

_He thinks back to that rowdy day in the club room, Yamaguchi demonstrating his perfect ability of keeping his friends and teammates in check as the future captain of Karasuno. Maybe he should text Kenma, instead? No, it would seem too needy, and… it was too soon to even decide anything yet. Ryuunosuke didn’t know if he could handle it, leaving his home for one so far away._

In the end he went, and met Kenma at orientation. 

_Ryuunosuke hadn’t really hoped he’d meet Kenma, not really. Kenma might not even want to hang out all that much. But they’d been wanted by this university as a team. Biting his lip, Ryuunosuke approaches Kenma, wondering if he still lived with his parents, or if he got his own place… Ryuunosuke had to. Not the smallest apartment in Tokyo (he’s seen them… 8m² living space… too small for his personality), but not the biggest one, either. Through the door, into the kitchen, entering right the living space that would turn to a bedroom at night. His very own place, with elderly neighbours on both side, and a tiny balcony on which he could at least stand, if his feet weren’t spread too wide._

_And all the privacy in the world, if he ever wanted someone over…_

_“Hey, Kenma!” Ryuunosuke yells excitedly, making Kenma jump. But there’s recognition and a glint of what Ryuunosuke wants to be the happiness of seeing a familiar face._

_“Hello, Ryuunosuke-kun.”_

_It’s cool that he and Kenma could be on friendly terms, still. Even if Ryuunosuke’s heart wants more, and will probably suffer from seeing Kenma everyday. He and Kenma stand together for a while, Ryuunosuke falling into the motions of a man who’s hiding his feelings. Because one thing was certain, and has always been… Whatever Ryuunosuke was feeling would just… never be mutual._

 

*

 

*

 

Kenma returns to find Ryuunosuke in one of his moods. It was not something that would happen often when Kenma was at home. At least, not recently. Around company, or while doing work, Ryuunosuke’s eyes would sometimes...dull. He’d become very still, doing nothing, saying nothing. His mind would be so far away that Kenma calling out to him wouldn’t register. It had been weird the first time Kenma saw it.

Ryuunosuke’s mile long stare into nothing.

Making sure not to drop his keys, Kenma thinks about what he should do. Putting his shoes back on and leaving would be the best idea. It wasn’t bad for Ryuunosuke to be in deep thought, but Kenma didn’t want to be the one bringing him out of it. He could go for a walk. Making sure to drop the groceries he has on the floor close to the nearby mini fridge, Kenma looks around for Ryuunosuke’s notebook.

Holding his keys, still in his socks, Kenma enters the kitchen on tip-toes. He finds a loose paper in the notebook itself, and pulls it out, thinking it’s scrap paper.

**buy for Kenma: long-sleeve, cozy, colourful? - > remember the party!**

Blinking, Kenma is fast to put the paper back where it came from. He thinks about just… not bothering to leave a message. Ryuunosuke would see the groceries. None of it was perishable, so he should just leave. Now. Making sure Ryuunosuke’s mind is not yet back to earth, Kenma takes a last glance.

A single tear rolls down Ryuunosuke’s face. Kenma’s eyes stay wide open. He’s in shambles, not knowing what to do. 

Standing still, he becomes a target of observation. Ryuunosuke wipes at his face, a soft, “What the fuck…” leaving his barely open lips. Then he registers Kenma standing in the kitchen, caught staring. 

_Shit._

“Oh… Oh you’re here.” 

“Yeah, uhm. I was about to—” Kenma turns to the bag, leaving the keys on the counter. Might as well diffuse the situation instead of making it weird by leaving. Instead, Kenma puts the bag on the limited counter space. “Would you… like some tea, perhaps?” 

“Uh… here or outside? I feel like I’ve been sitting for too long…” Ryuunosuke says, closing the balcony door and stretching his arms up. Kenma nods, but guesses Ryuunosuke wouldn’t see it as he yawns. A loud yawn, that makes his mouth open up wide and his eyes close shut. Kenma can see it in the reflection. Rows of teeth that look a little sharper than human teeth should be. They disappear from sight as a warm breath fogs up the door-window.

“Sure, we can get some tea to go… We’re actually out of earl grey, too.” Kenma remembers; Ryuunosuke mentioned it yesterday, and asked to remind him to buy it. 

“Can’t live without that. Then let’s… do a tea run to our number one tea store. We can track around the park for tea run number two and drink it on the way back,” Ryuunosuke says, his hand going below his shirt to scratch his stomach. Kenma looks away, still a bit shy after living with this free and wild human being for so long. He’d just… never get used to it. 

Sighing, Kenma walks to his side of the built-in closet space. Sliding the door open, his mind blank, stupid, and 100% focused on Ryuunosuke, Kenma takes out that ostentatious jumper. Looking at Ryuunosuke over his shoulder, Kenma’s hair shields his stealthy glance. After careful consideration, and knowing nothing else he could offer his friend… Kenma pulls the jumper over his head, then pushes his hands through the sleeves. If he wraps his shawl around his throat and head, he should be warm enough…

He doesn’t see Ryuunosuke’s reaction, if he has any at all. They go outside one after another, Kenma wondering if wearing Ryuunosuke’s gift makes any difference at all.

 

*

 

*

 

Ryuunosuke carries the brown paper bag containing more than just a fresh supply of earl grey. The two of them are not allowed to go to this particular tea store too regularly. Every time they go, new teas and cute containers find their way to their home. Kenma knows this, but he cannot help it. Ryuunosuke would browse and let him smell the tea leaves, and Kenma’s interest would overtake him. Although he’s usually being dragged to places, Kenma gathers all the courage he never knew he had.

And points towards the park. “Let’s go through there…”

It would be a longer road home, not a usual option for Kenma to take. Especially today, where the wind bites his face… He wraps the shawl more tightly around himself, until only his eyes and part of his forehead are visible. Ryuunosuke laughs, a way better sound than the silence of tears. It is none of Kenma’s business to ask… Yet Ryuunosuke is always so in tune with not only his own emotions, but also those of others. 

Halfway through the mostly silent park, watching birds huddle together in naked tree branches (and a couple of insane people who are _running_ under them), Kenma sighs. His face becomes warm and a little moist, given that his scarf covers him.

“Say… do you want to talk about it…?” Kenma pokes, looking ahead. He’s not even sure if Ryuunosuke could hear him properly.

“Hmm? Oh… you mean, my little tender moment? Uhhhh, I was just, you know! Thinking about the past and. I thought about losing that match in my third year.” Ryuunosuke laughs, too loud and empty at the same time to be genuine. “For some reason, I was missing high school. Not the tests or the learning but, y’know. Club activities, simplicity. Not having to pay bills, or having to explain my specific interests and hobby being my job.” 

Kenma can tell it’s not the whole truth, but he’ll let Ryuunosuke have this version of it. If it’s something too private to be told, Kenma simply has no right to it. 

“That match nearly killed me,” Kenma says, getting chills just thinking about lying in bed 50 hours after, sore and on the brink of never looking at a volleyball again. To rub salt in the remembered, never really there, but definitely _perceived_ wound, Ryuunosuke’s hand slams down in the middle of his shoulders, ushering Kenma a couple of steps ahead. His ‘ouh’ is overpowered by Ryuunosuke’s barking laughter

The real kind, this time. 

“You did not _die_ , we didn’t even play 5 full sets!”

“We played… two sets that were in the 30s, Ryuu…” They end up talking about the match again, like they did during a random afternoon in their first year at university together. When the seed of doubt, the uncertainty of doing something boring like normal work or wondering if continuing volleyball would be worth it, first sprouted in Kenma’s mind. Ryuunosuke’s line of thinking aligns with Kenma’s current one, about that past they left behind for better futures. 

“Anyway, that was one of the toughest battles… before university started. Isn’t that so, Kenma?”

“Right… I’m glad it’s behind us…” Kenma says, looking upwards to the grey sky. He never thanked Ryuunosuke for offering him a way out, for taking him into an already small apartment. It feels a bit awkward to do it now, so Kenma waits until they got their tea home. If he could hold a warm cup, it might be easier to say cheesy things. 

 

*

 

*

 

As always, Ryuunosuke finds a way to diffuse the situation, making it less sentimental. 

“I remember you laughing at me the first time, though!”

Kenma sips his tea, which has cooled off by now. They’ve tried one of the new purchases, and it’s an instant hit in their household. Kenma needed about two cups to think of the right wording, and on his third, finally told Ryuunosuke how grateful he’s been that Ryuunosuke came up with the idea of a web series. They knew of each others anxieties during that difficult time in life when they had become twenty (or in Kenma’s case, would be that year), and how they had the same coping mechanism of watching streams made by amateurs. 

Awkwardness gone from his bones, Kenma sits up, huddled below a blanket that stays in place when he moves. 

“It was laughable, and still is.”

“But, my first ghost experience!”

“That was not a ghost experience, Ryuu… the tooth paste must have fallen, as I’ve told you ever since…”

“From a stable surface that wasn’t wonky, in a tiny bathroom without any vents or an open door? How, Kenma, really!” Ryuunosuke tells again from his night spent inside a horror house in Miyagi, where he and his Karasuno friends had camped out during the night. Kenma didn’t know for sure what it might have been. If it’d been a ghost, Shouyou would have protected Ryuunosuke at the time. Kenma never asked, given the time difference, and because… it was bad form to ask others about what they did and for what reason.

“Oh, we are so visiting that house when we get to do a spooky season for real! Man we’re all over the place right now…” Ryuunosuke laughs, rubbing the back of his neck. Kenma shrugs his shoulders. 

“You promised the audience one ‘demonic’ episode per season, so the special should take care of it. If you can find another ‘haunted’ place, that is,” Kenma grins behind his tea cup, waiting for Ryuunosuke to understand that Kenma is mocking him. It’s to make himself feel better, too. There’ve been more close calls these past few months than when they started this.

“Hey, you stop that. Or I won’t take you where I planned on taking you next Tuesday.”

Kenma makes a face, remembering what’s next week. “You don’t have to take me anywhere special, Ryuu…”

“I do, and you’ll love it,” Ryuu grins, all the way back to his same old self. The happy person who thinks of others before himself, going from mood-swing to mood-swing. Kenma is glad he was some sort of help in getting Ryuunosuke away from whatever made him sad before. Feeling warmer on the inside for reasons that go beyond tea, blankets, and a warm home, Kenma smiles into his mug. He’s actually looking forward his birthday, for once. 

 

*

 

*

 

They had made the decision to do a murder house mini-series concerning the suburbs. Kenma is adamant about not going back to that other house, though. He came up with the idea to do shorter visits and then put it all together in a bigger episode, readying the Halloween special for the 31st. Kenma must have not liked Ryuunosuke’s eagerness to know more about the Chinese Zodiac killer. 

Both act like it’s just any normal Tuesday, and not Kenma’s birthday. Ryuunosuke chose a nice, uncrowded cafe for them to work at. 

Even though they’re not celebrating as Ryuunosuke usually would have, he makes sure to pay for everything, at least. And to try very hard not to read the forum threads about this murdering maniac. Kenma works on the footage they shot in their latest house, the second one so far. He’s also working on his second apple pie (“If you’re buying…”) while Ryuunosuke sips his iced caramel macchiato, actively trying to look for a third house to visit. It’s getting harder and harder to find a good one with enough information, and is also free to the public to visit. Given these odds, he opens a favourited link. He’s glad he does, seeing the most popular thread on top, which hadn’t existed before.

“Oh, this one forum is doing a project. They’re trying to decipher the Chinese Zodiac’s code,” Ryuunosuke says, scrolling up and down and trying to piece together what some of his internet friends are rambling about. “In the Zodiac’s last letter, he wrote about leaving hints to who he is, and what he’s after. Man, I wish I knew where to even start! This asshole calls himself the ‘Chinese’ Zodiac killer but… his cipher has not even a hint of Chinese… it’s just super strange shit.”

He’s lucky that Kenma seems to be in a good mood, not chiding him for the distraction or the content of it. Must be really good apple pie in this place. 

“Just like the original Zodiac… it makes no sense. At least this one signs off with an Ox, which might be his actual zodiac,” Kenma offers, picking up his small fork to take a bite from his pie. Ryuunosuke hears him pull his feet below the seat, while Ryuunosuke’s own legs are stretched out in front of him. They fit themselves well into spaces, together. “Still, why they use the name ‘zodiac’ is beyond me. Are they not one, but all? Then why would he try to distinguish himself…”

“Hmmm, not one but all zodiacs… Hey, like mine! I’m a Pisces.” 

“I’m well aware,” Kenma says, not looking up from his screen. “How about you focus on your work, hm?” 

“Why, when we’re on such a romantic outing,” Ryuunosuke teases, bumping the toe of his boot against Kenma’s shoes. That gets his attention, easily. 

“Shut up… I’m just here for the pie and a change of scenery. And I’m not celebrating any nonsense.” Dedicated, Kenma takes another bite. He keeps staring at his screen, which Ryuunosuke doesn’t point out against his ‘scenery’ mention. Instead, he plays it cool over Kenma’s actual remark.

“Harsh! I got feelings, you know.”

“Yes, Pisces usually overflow with them,” Kenma bemoans, pulling his legs away when Ryuunosuke tries to actually kick him this time. They play around under the table until their movements make the dishware rattle. Before they get unfriendly looks or worse, are asked to leave, they stop and return to their jobs. They had visited two houses so far for footage, and Ryuunosuke was busy trying to find another one… When he gets nowhere, Ryuunosuke stretches his arms behind him. 

“Okay, enough work for today. It’s time we go for an actual change of scenery.”

His grin has Kenma suspicious. “...Where..?”

“You’ll love it.”

“Kuro says the same thing in different words, and I always regret going. Last time I forgot he mentioned bringing Bokuto-kun, and went to eat hamburgers with him...” Kenma says, his face contorting at the memory. Ryuunosuke remembers. He’d been warm from the beer he drank that evening, and got even warmer when Kenma decided to use him as a pillow and a bed all at once. It had been so nice and cozy that, while Ryuunosuke didn’t want to take advantage of the situation by enjoying it, he hadn’t woken Kenma up or pushed him away. When Kenma’s alarm woke up Ryuunosuke but not Kenma, Ryuunosuke had simply shut it off.

Putting the memory aside, Ryuunosuke wiggles his short eyebrows. At last, he can take out the two tickets from his backpack. Giddy about the surprise, he slams them on the table next to theirs, on which they had off-loaded some of their stuff. 

“Bam, look how cool a present I got you! I was sooo lucky it’s today, too.” Ryuunosuke watches Kenma’s eyes going from squinting in caution to guarded happiness. He turns the tickets more to himself, and even checks if they’re real. Ryuunosuke grins wider. As if Kanoka would ever fool him. 

“These… are real. I thought they were sold out when we looked for prices..?”

“Yes, but Kanoka’s senpai’s brother’s _boyfriend_ is on the team this year! She got me the tickets.” Ryuunosuke watches Kenma mentally catching up to who Kanoka is, the fact that she has a brother, and where a boyfriend comes into play. Meanwhile, Ryuunosuke puts his laptop in sleep mode, sure to keep this exact same work environment up for later when he’s home. 

“Wait, who?” Kenma says in the end, holding tickets to Japan’s national volleyball team versus the Dutch ones from overseas. Ryuunosuke laughs, and they both stand up to clear the tables and get a drink to go. The stadium isn’t close by, so they’d have to take the subway there. As they leave the cafe, Kenma stands still, holding the tickets in his hand. 

“See, told you you’d love it,” Ryuunosuke says, his foolish heart getting its hopes up. Kenma grants him a genuinely sweet smile.

“Thank you, Ryuu.”

The smile lasts a long time, and means the world to Ryuunosuke.

 

*

 

*

 

Finding murder houses in which supernatural occurrences have been registered is often hard. But a beep from Kenma’s phone shows a very different kind of murder that stays relevant and popular in the city’s heart. They stand in the appropriate lines, waiting for their underground train to arrive. Talk about the match is interrupted as Kenma’s phone goes off. While Ryuunosuke follows all the forums, Kenma stays with more solid facts of the online operated newspapers. 

Another victim, Kenma tells Ryuunosuke, not having to name the killer anymore. He simply gives Ryuunosuke the information he’s waiting for. 

“37… Hmmm, this birthday makes them a Virgo and the year… what’s the chicken one again?”

“You mean, Rooster? Or Cock?” Ryuunosuke grins, despite the grim news. He doesn’t notice Kenma’s reaction, as his phone goes off with notifications again. Pulling his own phone out, Ryuunosuke quickly skims the news. The train shows up as Ryuunosuke’s screen fills with an image, and he’s momentarily so absorbed that Kenma has to pull him aboard. Probably because the inside of the train is heated, unlike their previous granite surroundings. Kenma makes him sit down first, and Ryuunosuke finally turns his phone up into Kenma’s face. “Kenma, look. They released a sketch of what the killer looks like.”

Kenma’s curiosity cannot be kept out of his voice. “What? How? Who?”

“The information is spreading, oh hey, a source from the… from the police! Shit, dude. He tried to stab two people, but one guy survived! That’s insane.” Ryuunosuke wishes he could whip up his laptop, or that they’d be home already. They look at the source together. Just 45 five minutes ago, near the stadium, the killer attacked two people who had been walking around. Not much is known yet, but the police wanted to send out a general warning to the public about the occurrence. The source also states that authorities are keeping most information from the general public, given that the younger woman, aged 27, didn’t die or bleed out. It didn’t say anywhere what the relationship was between the two victims, or if they were in fact found together. 

They exit their train at their stop 10 minutes later, and walk home. Ryuunosuke is eager to return to their place, and even Kenma walks a little faster than usual. As soon as they get there, Kenma readies the kettle, and Ryuunosuke sets up his laptop and takes out the appropriate notebook from between a stack. 

“Did they release anything new yet?”

“Hmmm, not yet,” Ryuunosuke says, rubbing his chin. “Hey, can you make that good one? The new lemon tea we got?” Ryuunosuke asks, and Kenma gives a small noise as an answer. It takes the time for the water to boil, the tea to steep and to be cooled off enough to drink, before the page for the local police refreshes with an update. The Chinese Zodiac killer has struck again. It also says their birthdays, as with every victim concerning this case. 

“Aries and Goat! Hey, that’s the second Aries so far.”

“But isn’t this the third Goat already? Wait, don’t you have an excel sheet regarding the victims, Ryuu?”

“Hell yeah I do, here let me see...” Ryuunosuke says. Kenma sits next to him, inching closer, his black hoodie pressed against Ryuunosuke’s bare elbow. Even with the news as it is, Ryuunosuke cannot help but feel the heat. But his attention is drawn to the sheet he started, in which he adds the newest victims’ zodiacs.

“Damn,” Ryuunosuke breathes, and Kenma mimics the curse, as the truth reveals itself. This was the Chinese Zodiac’s fourth intended Goat victim. 

“A pattern at last...” Ryuunosuke says, looking at Kenma. Kenma’s eyes seem to see more than just an excel sheet. “Hey, do you think he has like… a database or something? He mentioned in his letters that his cipher details the specific people he’s after but… how does he find them?”

Kenma’s voice is smaller, less ‘here’. Ryuunosuke leans in to properly understand him.

“No database… why would he need one? Everyone always puts their info online, everywhere. I have some basic information about myself in our social media bio. Yours have icons of Pisces symbols… A lot of people put birthdays in handles, the day and month thing? Or a year… it's normal to, if your username is already taken. We want people online, total strangers, to know so much about us in a single glance. We’re too open, too vulnerable. These victims… they might have posted a picture of themselves online. We don’t know what their profiles look like, or what they tell about themselves.”

Kenma isn’t wrong. Ryuunosuke looks at his phone, opening one app out of many. It’s true, he has so much personal information on any of them, readily available for everyone to see. But if he closes himself off from the world, then what does he stand to gain? He and Kenma couldn’t create content the way they do, if they didn’t open up to an audience at all. He looks at Kenma, whose eyes seem distant.

This wasn’t how Ryuunosuke intended Kenma’s birthday to go. “H-hey, we should order food tonight! Let’s get some pizza, mhn? We can… stay in and watch a movie. Orrr, rewatch the match online?” Ryuunosuke offers, not knowing why… but needing to get Kenma’s mind off these grim happenings. 

They both knew that they might have seen, or crossed, the Chinese Zodiac killer today.

 

They’re still awake, late at night and full of food. Kenma stares at his screen. A new letter from the killer, half deciphered by the forum Ryuunosuke mentioned before, explains that he does in fact have a pattern. Ryuunosuke sits next to him, shaking his head. 

“This guy thinks he’s purging bad people through zodiac selection… and he doesn’t just randomly kill,” Ryuunosuke says, looking at the only Japanese sentences between the unintelligible ciphers. The killer gloats about how he has given hints and clues in previous letters about his intended victims, but no one solved it yet. Kenma scrolls down to another part of the letter. It’s exactly as they discussed earlier.

“He thinks himself superior… Here it reads, ‘All of you and your online life. It’s so easy to find my victims. Please continue spreading where you live, how old you are, your zodiacs, what you do on a day to day basis. Everyone is so stupid, but some of you are more stupid than others. I will find you, and rid you of this earth. Power is on my side, one no normal person could ever comprehend.’ I hate this guy,” Kenma says at last, standing up as if trying to get away from the madness.

Ryuunosuke agrees. “He even takes a dig at my sign! Says Pisces are too naive and easy prey, so the fishpeople are safe for now. What an asshole!”

Kenma’s reaction is more of a murmur, and Ryuunosuke decides they shouldn’t bother with this guy any longer. At least, not for tonight. 

 

*

 

*

 

Kenma couldn’t deal with Ryuunosuke’s moping for another day. Over the weekend, he finds a house they could add for their Halloween special, one he knows for a fact doesn’t have ghosts. To add a fun factor for the audience, Kenma sets a black cat loose in the house prior, and watches Ryuunosuke lose his mind. The cat was poorly seen in the dark, and Kenma made a note to add shelter info, and a love for black cats at the end of their special. 

“We’re not putting this at the end. The other house was waaay creepier,” Ryuunosuke says afterward, when they pack up their equipment into their large and padded backpacks. Kenma is fine with whatever. It would fit with the flow of the video, either way. He ushers Tetsurou’s black cat, Jiji, back into its cat cage, making Ryuunosuke carry it for now. 

_”Don’t you ever feel bad… leading him on like this?”_ Tetsurou had once asked him, when the web series started. Kenma had strong principles, however. People didn’t need to know everything, and definitely not the worst… Sighing, Kenma and Ryuunosuke walk to the closest underground. First, they have to bring the cat back, and then Ryuunosuke probably wants to eat something. Appreciating the quiet night, Kenma doesn’t mind if they get home a bit later. 

 

Once they drop the cat off and Kenma is able to reject any kind of social activities, not limited to invites, plans, or worse ‘calling Bokuto over for drinks!’, they’re free to leave Tetsurou’s front step again. Tetsurou, standing in the doorway, keeps chatting with Ryuunosuke, however. At one point, Kenma turns to them.

“I have done an activity already… don’t make me do another,” he says, finally managing to get Ryuunosuke to walk homewards. He likes to imagine that every now and then, Ryuunosuke does things just for him. Not exactly ‘wrapped around his finger,’ but… Ryuunosuke knows his moods, and follows along accordingly. 

“Yeah, sure, let’s go home, Kenma.”

 

*

 

*

 

Of course, that is until Ryuunosuke hears a noise and wants to investigate.

“What? No, Ryuu… let’s just go home. Are you forgetting there’s a killer on the loose?” Kenma says, standing still in hopes that Ryuunosuke will bounce back to him. He doesn’t. Ryuunosuke is sure he heard something, coming from an empty warehouse. He finds a cut in the fence, crouching to see how far it opens. Pretty far; someone taller than him could go through, easily. Kenma whisper-yells from behind him, a little closer than before. “It’s abandoned, anyway.” 

Ryuunosuke sees it, too. The warehouse is left in darkness, some of its windows broken. The last paint job must have been done 10 years ago, an estimation Ryuunosuke can only make because he once had to repaint his old home. Already on the other side of the fence, Ryuunosuke’s fingers let go of its diamond mesh. He hears, again, the sound of things crashing and someone yelling. He turns around, seeing Kenma on the other side. Abandoned also, as no lamp post light makes it to this corner. 

“Ryuu, c’mon. It’s late already..” 

“Tell me you didn’t hear it,” Ryuunosuke asks, thumb pointing behind him. Kenma’s mouth wrinkles, taken aback, but unable to tell a lie. He knew Kenma had a tell if he spoke a tiny, white lie; he’d look to his own knees, or at the knees of the person he’s not telling the entire truth to. It didn’t happen often, but Ryuunosuke witnessed it in his last year of high school, then during his first year at university. And then, Kenma would add a feint to distract you.

“Please, Ryuu—”

“Don’t be such a chicken, Kenma! You always say there’s nothing creepy in the houses we visit. We could add this to the Halloween episode! Come on,” Ryuunosuke returns the plea, but Kenma doesn't budge. “Okay, stay there, then! I’ll be super quick.”

Going forward, Ryuunosuke is excited. Why has he never thought of abandoned places… he didn’t need murder houses. Not with this creepy estate right here. As expected, Kenma follows him with a lot of complaining added as they walk to the door. Kenma is sure it’s closed, but Ryuunosuke doesn’t have to exert a lot of strength in his shoulders to get it open. 

“We already did our work today… can’t we come back another time?” Kenma says, hovering close to Ryuunosuke. 

“Can you turn around?” He asks Kenma instead, who does so. One track minded and forward in his mission to investigate the noise, Ryuunosuke pulls the mini camera from the front of Kenma’s backpack. “Thanks.”

“You’re the worst. I should have stayed at Tetsurou’s…”

“We could have! Mr. ‘I only do one social activity a week’. Don’t whine now. This is not a murder house, too. It should be fine.”

“You heard a crashing noise, Ryuu. What about that is cool?” 

“Who knows~? Let’s find out. Come ooon, trust me. This is gonna be fun,” Ryuunosuke says, walking further down the hallway of the warehouse. It turns out to be a factory; from where he stands, Ryuunosuke can see office areas displaying manufactured goods and posters of advertisements. There is so much dust everywhere, though, and Ryuunosuke makes sure he and Kenma don’t breathe in too much. They might sneeze too loud. At last, Kenma pulls out a flashlight.

“Ten minutes. Not a second longer. I will go home alone and leave you here, Ryuu.” 

 

*

 

*

 

Kenma would never let Ryuunosuke walk in somewhere alone if he wasn’t sure about its safety or its… activity. And Ryuunosuke, even if he gets frightened, would do anything to find ghosts. Even walk alone straight into one’s arms. Kenma could never let it happen. 

He’d made a vow. And despite it being unspoken, non-binding, it was one he made for himself. To keep Ryuunosuke safe. 

Keeping a close watch on his phone in one hand, Kenma lights Ryuunosuke’s way. They stand still at corners, making sure that camera and light go at the same pace to catch it all. Kenma doesn’t get any vibes from this place… not the kind he could pinpoint as definitely too dangerous to continue. Yet he checks the time every minute. There’s something creeping in his neck, a cold breath without air flow being an issue here. ‘Just a draft’ was Kenma’s catchphrase. Their fans have requested shirt and hoodie options carrying that phrase.

Air hangs here, however, unmoving. As still as the time, which doesn’t want to speed up, no matter how much Kenma hopes for it to. He should just… take Ryuunosuke out now. Call Tetsurou. Do anything else but walk deeper into the darkness. 

“Hey… look, there’s a light,” Ryuunosuke whispers, pointing at the beginning of a hallway. Kenma swallows down a groan. Keeping his own flashlight pointed to the floor, not wanting to draw any attention if someone is, in fact, there. They walk towards it, as stupid as that is. Kenma knows… they haven’t even found the whereabouts of the murderer. His attacks have been all over the place… He could be anywhere. 

Wanting to distract Ryuunosuke from the glimmer in front, Kenma points his flashlight down the first of two hallways. 

“Hey, I heard something over there?” Kenma says, keeping his eyes to the point. Ryuunosuke was never able to tell an untruth of Kenma’s lips, not when he could hide it so well… Kenma’s heart eases when Ryuunosuke turns for a moment, trying to hear it, too. Letting out a breath, and as Ryuunosuke films the other side, Kenma turns to the ajar door. Trying again to get a feeling of the place. But it’s just cold, a normal, natural cold that chills his spine. He worries this might cause his senses to be less aware…

“No, there’s nothing. Let’s check out that other hallway,” Ryuunosuke says, and Kenma follows him, doing his best to keep pace and stay shoulder to shoulder. Or well, shoulder to upper-arm, in Kenma’s case. They don’t have much height difference, if Kenma would ever walk upright and not slouch forward.

Currently, his shoulders and back are tense as he doesn’t know what might await as they follow the light. Ryuunosuke rounds the corner, and points at a door ajar. He whispers to Kenma.

“Light source… let’s be careful in case it’s homeless people who don’t want to be bothered… Or maybe a couple going at it,” Ryuunosuke grins, and Kenma hopes it might be anything as tame as those two options instead of something way, way worse. They slowly walk towards the door, and Ryuunosuke holds a hand out to stop Kenma from looking in first.

But he sees it, all the same. A figure standing below a ceiling lamp. He’s shined on like a messiah, except that this one isn’t friendly.

Kenma sees the glimmer in the glasses first, before he notices the same shine on the blade in the man’s hand. He recognizes the face from the sketch. That one afternoon in the cafe, his birthday, not even that long ago… and Kenma desperately wishes he had the power to turn back time. Anything that could help him out in this instant, as the man looks up to them with a wide, manic grin. Heart sinking, Kenma’s shock doesn’t change as Ryuunosuke puts a hand on his shoulder, trying to push him away. 

It’s too late to back out now. If they run, a knife to the back would be the most likely outcome.

The Chinese Zodiac killer sees the fear in their eyes, and starts laughing out loud.

“Well, well, look what the cat dragged in. And on a silent night when I didn’t feel like going out and finding those who need to be purged, too. Fate has willed it so.”

 

*

 

*

 

It's a most unfortunate turn of events. After getting Ryuunosuke off the idea to hunt the Zodiac killer, they find him. 

Kenma knows it's him. Its an instant recognition of evil, the living kind. The killer wears glasses, and above his collar peeks a scorpion tail, stinger facing the way of the Adam's apple. 

“To think I would be honoured by popular internet ghost investigators! Yes… yes… Pisces, Pig. Booo. So…. boring and too easy...although Pigs are always up for slaughter,” he says in a high, fake voice. His eyes flicker from Ryuunosuke to Kenma, his smile widening. “But _Libra_ , Pig. Much more interesting to kill the ones who judge so fucking much! Especially if you’re such a swine...”

Kenma cringes. He never cared about his name and picture, video evidence of his doings being out there. Online profiles with so much information, all readily available to god knows who. And in the year they worked on their web series, they’ve only gained popularity. Still, Kenma’s senses, even if they’re not hyper-trained, feel that something is off; namely that he cannot determine if this guy has a rare ability. Maybe he was possessed by a demon who helped him, but that was too rare an occurrence with Scorpios. Kenma has no time to think, to ask, to properly assess the situation. Preparing that this is a power of unknown proportions one way or the other, Kenma’s forefinger and thumb rub over each other, amplifying the sand between, and out of sight. Sweat runs down his neck, as he reaches for energy from the land of dreams. 

It turns to cold fear, the temperature actually dropping like crazy, as a second figure appears.

He hears Ryuunosuke draw his breath. 

All this time, all this work, just for a ghost to materialize. Kenma can see the shadowy figure, more grey smoke than living being. Not yet visible to Ryuunosuke, his friend at least notices the shift in temperature. Kenma looks to the killer’s left, where a second face comes into existence under the light. Breathing out at last, Kenma recognizes the facial features. That was the last victim, Naoko.

Even as Ryuunosuke knows there’s something else with them, he attempts light conversation with the killer. 

“So, uh, listen. We’re somewhat famous and well—we’ve already placed cameras in places you don’t know about. The police will definitely figure out who you are and come after you.” 

“Not if I kill you first and remove the evidence. If you’re truly those ghosthunting, crime investigating children, I cannot let you live and leave? That would be even more dangerous for me!” The killer scratches an itch, right where the pointy tail of his tattoo is. His smile is teeth locking together, a snarl showing. Kenma’s worries of a presence within the killer manifests when intuition kicks off. Meanwhile, the ghost at the killer’s side manifests, too. 

When it all comes crashing down, it comes at once. Kenma sees Naoko’s ghost form become more solid. Yet, the spirit has no interest in her killer, as it usually would. Nor does the Chinese Zodiac killer notice her. They stand side by side, and while the killer looks at Kenma, the ghost has its depth-less, glassy white eyes turned to Ryuunosuke. Because they always do. 

And Ryuunosuke looks back at it. A sharp exhale leaves his nose. 

Ghosts are real. Ryuunosuke believed it. Kenma knew it, did his best to guard his friend—flatmate, more than friends, feelings he shouldn’t harbour, crush—against it. And now one was here, with every intention to possess Ryuunosuke.

"Not my usual prey, Libras aren’t, but you'll do just fine. Tier two, if anything. Nooo, the angry Aries, always wanting to fight. The cocky Roosters. The stupid Goats… And those perfectionist Virgos! Oh but I hate Snakes and Dragons most of all… my Tier One prey… so hard to find though! But please, I would like to know... do you have any sins to confess before I kill you?" 

_I am not who I said I was. I lied to a friend. I am in love. I've lied and cheated and altered reality. I am the one who puts you all to sleep._

He cannot put them all under at once. Not without hurting Ryuunosuke, not without the killer noticing. Not before the ghost can possess it's desired host. Kenma makes a decision he will regret, but he cannot put it above his care for Ryuunosuke. And he cares just…. Too damn much; his heartbeat tried to run away from him, but Kenma calms after he makes his choice. His head is so full, but he orders it to be empty. He’s made himself small, a lesser target… but protecting Ryuunosuke is more important, so he makes himself tall. Standing proud, Kenma comes forward, hearing Ryuunosuke whisper his name as he passes him.

"No sins. Just a magic trick," Kenma says, pulling both his hands out of his pockets. Handfuls of sand pour from his palms, to never hit the floor. It flies straight to the ghost, who might either relax to a final, eternal sleep in the afterlife, or would just forget about Ryuunosuke. The Zodiac killer's eyes widen behind his glasses, and then close as he goes to sleep. He collapses from the knees, falling backwards.

Kenma breathes out. In. Out. Both the killer and the killed fast asleep. Ryuunosuke safe.

Or at least, that’s how it should have gone. And he would have made Ryuunosuke sleep too, forget the last couple of seconds, minutes.

That, however, is not the case, and Kenma’s chest contracts in pain. He falls to his knees, not knowing who or what just kicked him in the guts, or how they got close to him. Looking up, his eyes witness his sand, useless, lying around in a half moon circle where the ring of the lamp’s light is. He breathes out, in, out, feeling the pain of rejection going through him. A more powerful being, hungering from the light bulb, making it shine stronger. The light is so strong that it blinds Kenma. He cannot see the creature hiding in the light bulb, which is too powerful.

Then he feels Ryuunosuke’s hands on his back, asking if he’s alright.

Ryuunosuke, who has seen it all. Ryuunosuke, who now knows, and would not be able to forget. But Kenma needs to try… he gathers sand in his fists, wanting to let Ryuunosuke sleep, to not have him witness all of this. But Ryuunosuke’s hands go around his fists, and he shakes his head.

“No, not this time. There’s strength in numbers, Kenma. I won’t let you handle it all by yourself. We’re a team!”

 

*

 

*

 

Ryuunosuke helps him get up, and whips into action; it’s unlike with volleyball, where Kenma would preserve energy and not move around… not until Karasuno had started making him, anyway. Unsure if maybe he got sand in his eyes still, Ryuunosuke watches Kenma round the circle of light in slow motion. A memory comes to Ryuunosuke, who doesn’t even know what he should be doing. For all that team talk… he’s just a human.

_‘Circle of life, Humans. Circle of death, Ghosts. Circle of darkness, Witches. Circle of light, the Righteous 「origin unknown/holy war against those they perceive to be wrong」’_ There had been so many ‘circles’ and sub-tribes, names Ryuunosuke couldn’t even speak out loud. He found a very funny, straightforward circle, too. Ryuunosuke thinks how he had shaken his head, thinking it couldn’t be true. That a children’s myth couldn’t exist… but it was real. And as he learned afterwards, Kenma was—or had been—part of one such circle... 

It is like a dream. A funny joke, too, somehow. His toothpaste fell (Kenma takes a knee), he found this book with unknown mythology of the world (the killer talks about following the holy book of names), Ryuunosuke knew ghosts existed, never seeing one until this day… How he had believed in _so many things_ without ever really seeing them with his own two eyes. How he’d known in his heart there was more on this good earth than normal, human beings. 

Circle of life. As if all the others weren’t part of it. But Kenma was part of his life.

The sand moves in slow, sensual swirls. Sensual maybe to Ryuunosuke’s eyes only. This wasn’t the time to be distracted, though. Kenma lashes it out like a whip. It doesn’t hit Ryuunosuke, who knows he should at least try and help, not just be all talk. 

“Hey, you pieces of shit! I’m over here too, you know!” Ryuunosuke yells, not quite ready when two hollow eyes from the dead, and two gleaming glasses of the living beam back at him. The ghost, after all, has more interest in Ryuunosuke than in Kenma. Evening out the odds, Ryuunosuke backs away, making the ghost follow him. It crosses the light barrier, and Ryuunosuke recognizes the last victim at last. 

As it crosses the light barrier, the light source overhead breaks. Ryuunosuke sees his breath coming out in front of him. He leads the ghost further away, watching as Kenma raises a wall of sand to wash over the killer. It must have been child’s play otherwise, to take out anyone else. Yet the killer’s blade slashes forward. His movements slow in the sand, yet they do not halt. Ryuunosuke cannot watch, and he runs fully around to avoid the ghost, and to protect Kenma. Making sure not to touch the sand either, Ryuunosuke’s arms fling around Kenma, and he drags him away from the slicing knife. 

“See! We are a good team!” Ryuunosuke grins, against all odds. It throws the killer off, who walks through the sand wall as it falls. He steps out of the light. Kenma’s hands run over Ryuunosuke’s, and for a blissful moment, they stand back to chest. The back of Ryuunosuke’s hand feels rough when sand courses over him, and he feels… life force being drawn from him.

“Stop getting in my way, Ryuu!”

“I am not in your way, I’m right behind you! Got your back and everything. Also, that guy has a knife, Kenma. I care about you,” Ryuunosuke wants to bring Kenma away from here, but the man’s feet root to the ground. The sand swirls in twin storms over Kenma’s palms, as he raises them in front of his face. For a second, Kenma’s head turns enough to look at Ryuunosuke, and kiss his jawline. 

There are words on his skin. Ryuunosuke can feel them, but not hear them. The ghost yells, wanting to possess him, but hovers behind it’s murderer. As if waiting for permission. The Chinese Zodiac killer raises his knife, his manic grin reaches his ears. His Scorpio tattoo glows. 

Kenma brings his hands together at the pinkies, and blows heavy sand in the killer’s eyes. Ryuunosuke doesn’t get a whiff of it. He is wide awake, watching the killer fall backwards, eyelids falling. The ghost is coated in the sand, and Ryuunosuke can hear a lullaby that isn’t meant for him. A prayer to move on, to leave him be. The ghost vanishes, its eyes emptier than before. 

Ryuunosuke feels Kenma’s back press against his chest, both of them breathing heavily. Kenma, who says in a matter of fact tone, “We should call the cops.”

Slinging his arm around Kenma’s chest, Ryuunosuke hugs him. It’s not something they’ve done, apart from that one time they ended up on one futon. Ryuunosuke feels it’s right to do. The Chinese Zodiac killer lies fast asleep in front of them, his Scorpio tattoo just a normal tattoo once more. 

“That was one mean asshole,” Ryuunosuke says, feeling Kenma laugh in his arms. “Let’s call the cops anonymously, and leave. I’ve had enough with murderers.”

Kenma stops laughing, the back of his head thumping against Ryuunosuke’s collarbone. In the smallest possible voice, Kenma says:

“Well… now you know…”

 

*

 

*

 

"I knew all along." 

The words come like a gunshot. A gunshot so far away that its echoes are non-threatening. As if it happened a rice field away. Kenma takes a moment to look up from his book, to look at Ryuunosuke. To understand the man's words as they slowly reach his brain. He lowers his book, doubling as a shield, slowly into his lap. Eyes widening, he says his first words since the warehouse.

"You couldn't have." 

"No? I’ve had actual sand fall from my eyes.” Ryuunosuke’s eyes are penetrating. He even left his melon pan on the table, having only eaten a couple of bites. Ryuunosuke’s yellow golden eyes, which look at Kenma as if he wishes him to say it himself. However, Ryuunosuke lays out the facts as he knows them. As they are. As he’s known them to be, while Kenma had been so careful…

“You’re a Sandman.”

"Sand-tribe sand disappears into the pores,” Kenma deflects, as if it's any use at this point. Ryuunosuke laughs. 

“And you didn’t notice that my skin got nicer because of it? I did.”

“I never looked—no, that’s a lie… I may have noticed, but I thought it was a change in your skin routine…” Kenma mumbles, looking away. They had a jumble of cremes stuffed with the bathroom things in the closet, given that the bathroom itself had no space at all.

“Hmmm, so you didn’t know about it… I made the connection, of what your sand does to me apart from making me fall asleep. It wasn’t stuff I read about Sand-beings, which is very limited, don’t worry. When I started looking into ghost stories, this one book I found spoke about ‘Circles’. There was one that was so straightforward,” Ryuunosuke laughs, quoting the book. “Really though, ‘Circle of sand, Sandmen, women and beings’. It also contained some stuff about the zodiacs, how it was all interwoven together, how we’re all part of one big Circle of everything. I came across theories, about Pisces being 'easier' to possess for those who have passed away but could not pass to the next stage. They hang around, hoping to find someone they can use, to live a little longer.”

In tune with emotions—his own, of others, of the living and the dead—Ryuunosuke’s face looks somber when he thinks of the deceased. “I wanted to meet ghosts, to talk to them, to see if I could… help them. They never scared me. I didn’t think some bum ghost could possess me… See, I didn’t take it lightly. It just didn’t occur to me to protect myself, either. It seemed so… unnecessary. I never needed it in Miyagi. Then… well, then I realized, after we went looking for ghosts, that I would not need a talisman or any sort of protection. I have you."

'Have', not 'had'. Kenma's hopeful heart skips an unnecessary beat. He closes the book.

Ryuunosuke smiles, a softer version of his knowing one. "But you fell in love with me. Sandmen in love tend to leave other traces, such as a layer of sand on the person's eyelids. 'Sweet dreams' that can also be... erotic fantasies. I connected the dots early, Kenma. We were out for our series, I knew a place had presence... next thing, I'm asleep—well, I wake up in my bed. No idea how I got there. You kept giving excuses. And nearly always, I had a wet dream. About you. I told you I believe in ghosts, demons, in anything, really. I eventually heard about it from a friend. That the sandman was a real person, in fact, an entire circle of people. I knew you were one after our series went online."

Kenma is pretty sure he's been holding his breath. There's a tightness in his chest. Not the kind you have when you’re caught lying, or caught stealing, or caught with any bad behaviour. The kind where you were caught in someone's arms, pressed close to their body, to their warmth. Ryuunosuke gave off all that, without laying a finger on him. 

“I just.... didn’t want to get my hopes up. To think beyond our… our friendship. Didn’t want to ruin things, so… I kept it to myself. I don't know how or why you came to be... outside your circle. You're not getting regular lessons. I guess if you didn't know about the erotic dreams thing, it might be because you're lacking a teacher and acquaintances. I’ve heard that the girls in the tribes may form smaller groups of trios or quintets, but actual Sandmen tend to stick together, in large groups across the land. But you're alone. You're with me." Ryuunosuke bites his lips, and there’s words unsaid between them.

Somewhere between that tightness making itself known and Ryuunosuke's words, Kenma puts his book aside. He stares off into another corner of the room, to let Ryuunosuke vanish behind one side of Kenma's bangs, framing his face. It was not his intention to give erotic dreams... he didn't even know he could do that. Nekomata’s half-brother never told him… probably because of Kenma’s more tender age, or that it’s usually a Sand-person of the same age who gives out that kind of vocal education.

He's been so careless with the sand, having not learned all there is to know. Things he should have been aware of. 

In the next moment, Ryuunosuke's warm presence becomes an arm around Kenma's shoulders. As Kenma's eyes widen, his forehead connects with Ryuunosuke's lips. 

"I couldn’t figure out if you did it on purpose. If you... liked me. I thought that maybe it was a side-effect you couldn't help or couldn't get rid of. Took me some digging. And then even when I was looking for tell-tale signs you're into me, I still didn't know."

Kenma looks down, to where his thigh sits against Ryuunosuke’s. A result of two people who are comfortable in each other's presence, record nonsense web series together, and have been through some shit. Kenma has noticed once or twice how he could stay 24 hours in Ryuunosuke's presence without being exhausted, without being drained by his energy. Ryuunosuke was a giver, giving even now when Kenma didn't speak or explain or even reject the notion of his identity. Ryuunosuke just... sits here with him, waiting without demanding. 

Sighing, Kenma lifts his chin up, closes his eyes, and blindly kisses a spot below Ryuunosuke's jaw. His arms go around Ryuunosuke's side; one arm reaching over his stomach to lie on the hip opposite, one arm resting on Ryuunosuke's back. A strong back that withstood mental and physical strain. A back Kenma wouldn't mind falling asleep against. 

"I… may have feelings for you. As in, more than a friend...kind of way," Kenma confesses, thinking he should give Ryuunosuke some verbal explanation. It was only just to do.

"Man, it’s good hearing that… I thought my crush was going to eventually crush me! And I like you too, Kozume Kenma," Ryuunosuke smiles down at him, and they rearrange; Ryuunosuke lies down on a pile of pillows, with Kenma on top of him. There’s a hand on his arm, one in his hair. The stuff Kenma’s dreams have always been made of.

"...You’re always so forward," Kenma mumbles, cozying up into Ryuunosuke's armpit. He could get used to this reality.

 

*

 

*

 

He’d never get used to this, Ryuunosuke thinks. Or it might be that Kenma reverts to being shy with friends around. They’re on a not-super busy street, crossing an otherwise empty bridge between two walkways. Kuroo and Yuu are in a heated discussion about blocking and saves, while Chikara moves them forward to give Kenma and Ryuunosuke some space. Not that Ryuunosuke feels abashed about kissing his long-term crush, finally turned boyfriend, on the lips, but—

“Your breath smells.”

“I know for a fact that’s a lie,” Ryuunosuke says, breathing out minty fresh air in front of Kenma’s nose.

“Please… when did I ever lie to you,” Kenma dares to say, looking away from Ryuunosuke as a blush rushes to his ears. Ryuunosuke doesn’t mind. Letting his arm slide down from Kenma’s shoulder to grab his hand, he guesses he really couldn’t. After all, he had known about Kenma… and never let on. Plus they both had been scared to confess their feelings for each other. Kenma did the latter only after Hinata told him to. The most permanent blessing and protection Kenma could give Ryuunosuke was in fact declaring him ‘his’.

No ghost would try to touch him ever again. Ryuunosuke really looks forward to doing more ghost stories on their channel. In front of them, Kuroo and Yuu descend the stairs, with Yuu making sure Kuroo is always a few steps ahead and further down, so they can be on the same line of sight. Chikara sighs, looking back at them for a second. 

“That tea shop you’re raving about is this way, right? I cannot babysit these two for another minute…” Chikara sighs, earning loud ‘Hey!’s from in front of him. Not defeated, Chikara uses his captain voice on them, despite Kuroo having been team captain himself once upon a time and being older. 

“You two, don’t stop! Just keep moving! I didn’t plan to spend my Tokyo visit listening to you two argue all the time.”

Ryuunosuke laughs, squeezing Kenma’s hand. These were the only people who knew about Sandmen, given that Hinata had actually told Chikara… and that Yuu was… a being of the light. But the good light, not the one that goes off killing innocents for some weird reason.

Kuroo had known, of course, and it made all the more sense to Ryuunosuke that Kenma had confided in his best friend. Still, even with a few people in the know that some supernatural things were… natural—they can never show actual footage. Ryuunosuke is aware of the rules and laws in place, to make sure that the Circle of everything remains unbroken and unsullied.

“No matter. It’s going to be so, so much more fun, now that ‘Feed the Bees’ has so much more honey to offer,” Ryuunosuke whispers it into Kenma’s ear, who tries to push him away.

“I will quit the job if you use that metaphor ever again, Ryuu.”

“Sure, sure, whatever you say, Kenma.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had so much fun writing this and connecting things. Sometimes the plot really worked for me, and at times I contradicted myself or got it all messed up. Again, a huge thanks to Nana for doing so much more than just 'looking' at this fic. 
> 
> And thank you for Glitchy too, who is such a nice and sweet person, deserving of all the love one bald boy can give! Tanaka is such a cool character, and someone I aspire to be in my daily life. And Glitchy is so chill, that I hope you were able to have a nice relaxing and chilling time reading this. It was so awesome to create this for you~~
> 
> I knew from the beginning that I'd make Kenma a Sandman. As soon as I started to add tidbits about his ability, this fic just flew out of my hands. Adding hints here and there about the sand was so much fun, as well as filtering through that, while Tanaka was in the dark, somehow knew a bit of what was going on, but never showed it???

**Author's Note:**

> 50% of my tanaka characterization comes from both of us being Pisces. 
> 
> I'm thinking of making this a series cuuuussss, I'm having wonderful ideas for this world. I wanna do a prequel and a sequel for it.


End file.
